Regrets
by SerenBex
Summary: Jo and Hannah are back for the fourth and final time. Could this be the end?
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Hello lovelies! This is the fourth and final part in Hannah and Jo's story! It's set about 10 months after Mistakes.**_

_**Hope you enjoy it!**_

_**x**_

* * *

The fallout from the Westlake case was still on-going when Hannah returned from her month's leave. She was surprised to find that DS Carter had transferred to another station and was delighted when the Superintendent offered her his old position when she returned to work. Jen had settled into life in the house and fulfilled her promise by returning to school at the beginning of the year to complete her GCSEs. Jo had legally adopted Theo, Molly and Caitlin in November and everything seemed to be going swimmingly.

Hannah flicked through the paperwork spread out on her desk with a sigh. Nearly seven months had passed since her promotion and she still hadn't got used to the increase in reports she had to file and forms she had to fill in. Jo hadn't been joking when she complained about the massive difference between being a Constable and a Sergeant. It wasn't just the paperwork driving her mad. There were two new trainee DCs in CID and it had somehow fallen on Hannah to keep an eye on them. Since Max, Terry and Banksy had all transferred to different stations and she had been promoted, the DI seemed to have decided that Hannah should be the one to take the two young detectives under her wing. The younger of the two, TDC Rob Evans, was hardworking, eager to learn and rather shy. The other new detective, TDC Ollie Baker, reminded Hannah far too much of Stuart Turner and Phil Hunter and the Detective Sergeant was only too happy to remind him who was the senior officer when she needed to. How he'd made it to CID was a mystery to the red-head most days.

Just as she was about to give Ollie a piece of her mind over the latest report he had filled in, the phone on her desk rang shrilly, causing the Detective Sergeant to jump and knock the open file onto the floor. Sighing and swearing softly, she bent to gather the papers, clamping the receiver between her ear and her shoulder as she did so.

"DS McKay? There's a woman down in reception for you." PC Green informed the detective over the phone.

Hannah distractedly shifted through the masses of paperwork on her desk and sighed. "OK, thanks, Beth. I'll be right down."

Just as she thought to ask who the woman was, Hannah realised that her daughter's best friend had already hung up. She sighed and glanced towards the desks to her left where the two new trainees were looking through the financial and phone records of the four suspects in the fraud case that was currently taking up most of their time and energy. Deciding that leaving them to their own devices for a couple of minutes wouldn't lead to any sort of incident, taking a gulp from her plastic coffee cup and wincing as she realised that the liquid was stone cold, the Detective Sergeant strode through the office and down the stairs to the reception area. Pushing through the double doors the red-head stopped abruptly, the colour draining from her face as her eyes fell on the woman sitting on the plastic seats waiting for her.

"What's the matter, Hannah, you look like you've seen a ghost?"

"You... You're... I was told you were dead." The red-head murmured weakly, feeling as though she was about to faint.

"Well that's a nice way to say hello to your mother, isn't it. I haven't seen you in... oh, years... and all you can say is 'I was told you were dead'." The woman replied, raising an eyebrow.

Suddenly Hannah was very aware of the young brunette PC watching them and cleared her throat. "Go in there." She ordered her mother gruffly, pushing the older woman towards the door that led off the reception area. Then she turned to Beth quickly. "Please don't mention this to anyone; especially not Ellie."

"Of course." Beth agreed with a smile.

Nodding at her, Hannah followed her mother into the interview room and closed the door firmly behind her. She leant against it for a moment, trying to get her head around what was happening. She hadn't seen or heard from Sharon since she was twenty, except a couple of years ago when she'd been told that her mother had died of a drugs overdose up in Scotland where they'd moved. But now her mother was looking at her, definitely alive.

"What are you doing here?" She demanded coldly after a moment composing herself. Her arms wrapped tightly around her waist, as though protecting herself from the woman.

"I came to see you. It's been far too long, Hannah."

The detective snorted. "You're telling me. It's been sixteen years, Sharon. The only thing I've heard in all that time was that you were dead. What about Pete? Is he still alive too?"

The older, blonde woman shook her head, sitting in the chair on the far side of the table. "No, your Dad had a heart attack in 2002. We split up not long after we moved to Scotland. I went to drugs counselling and I met Ian, my husband; he's one of the counsellors. I've been clean and on the straight and narrow since 1998."

"I'm pleased for you." Hannah replied emotionlessly, shrugging. "But you can't just turn up here and expect me to be happy to see you. I've got my life and it doesn't involve you. Clearly you've got yourself sorted in Scotland, so I think you should just go back there."

"What about Freya and Max, don't they have the right to decide whether or not they want to see me?"

"Freya's working in France and Max is at school." The younger woman told her bluntly. "They won't want to see you anyway, so you should just go."

"What about Ellie? I have the right to see my granddaughter."

Hannah glared at her angrily. "No, you don't. You gave up any rights you had, if you ever had any at all, when you buggered off with hardly a goodbye."

"It's not like you gave us the chance to say goodbye, Hannah." Sharon replied with a scowl. "First chance you got you were out of there and you took the children with you."

"D'you wonder why?" Her daughter laughed mirthlessly. "You spent your life in a heroin induced dream. You barely even noticed when we left. The kids wouldn't even recognise you."

"At least give them the choice."

There was a soft knock on the door, preventing Hannah from replying. She shot her mother a glare, before moving to the door and opening it to see who was outside. Beth winced slightly at the thunderous expression on the Detective Sergeant's face, before informing her that Uniform had just radioed in a sighting of the suspect CID had been after for a week and who had vanished off the face of the earth several days ago. Torn between wanting to make the arrest and needing to deal with the situation in the room behind her, Hannah asked Beth to pass on the information to DS Moss and Sergeant Stone and radio out an alert to the Uniform patrol that had spotted the man to keep trailing him.

"You sound like you're important around here." Sharon said as the younger woman re-entered the room and closed the door firmly. "Giving orders and delegating to everyone else."

"I am." Hannah agreed, keeping her face expressionless and shrugging. "I've worked bloody hard to get the life I've got and I won't let you waltz in and ruin everything."

"I don't want to ruin everything. I just want to get to know my family and for you to get to know yours. You've got another brother, Liam, who really wants to meet you all. I just want a chance to apologise for everything."

"It's a bit late to apologise now. You've got almost thirty-six years' worth of disappointment and let-downs to make up for and I really don't think you're capable."

"At least give me the chance to try." Sharon almost begged, stepping forward and closing the gap between them. She looked imploringly at her daughter and was greeted by a blank, hard expression that showed no signs of slipping.

"No. I don't want you anywhere near me or the kids." Hannah warned her coldly. "I think you should just go back to Scotland and stay there."

"Freya and Max are my children, Hannah, not yours." The woman reminded her daughter, her own eyes flashing angrily now. "You have absolutely no right to stop them seeing me if they want to."

Hannah closed the space between them in a second, jabbing her finger aggressively into Sharon's chest. "That's just the point; they won't want to see you. When we thought you'd died none of us cared. They don't know who you are. They wouldn't recognise you if you passed them in the street. Max was two when you left, for fuck's sake! He was just a baby!"

There was a sharp slapping sound and the red-head recoiled, bringing a hand to her cheek. For a couple of minutes, they just glared at each other. Then Sharon's face fell and she looked at her hand as though it didn't belong to her. She took a step forward and reached out, pulling her hand away as Hannah flinched.

The detective narrowed her eyes. "I think you should go."


	2. Chapter 2

That evening, Hannah's mind was all over the place. She couldn't concentrate on what her daughter was saying to her, although she had a vague idea that it was a story about something that had happened when she'd taken Caitlin and Dylan to the supermarket that afternoon.

"Did something happen at work today?" Ellie asked suddenly, changing the topic of conversation as she realised Hannah was a million miles away.

The red-head looked up quickly. "Huh? Oh… no. Sorry. I'm just tired."

"Are you sure? You seem… distracted, like you've got something on your mind."

"No, babe, honestly, I'm absolutely fine." Hannah tried to reassure her with a smile. Even to her own ears the words sounded weak and hollow. She took a sip of her wine and put the glass down on the side, scooping Dylan up off the floor.

As Ellie looked doubtfully at her, Hannah started making a fuss over her grandson, pointedly avoiding her daughter's eyes. Leaving the younger red-head to finish dinner, the detective made her way into the living room. She sighed as the doorbell rang, knowing that no one else would bother to answer it. From upstairs she could hear the battle of musical genres coming out of Max and Jen's bedrooms, each trying to drown out the other. Hannah wasn't sure how they could revise for their exams with their music so loud, but she'd had too many arguments on that subject already. Shifting Dylan slightly, she opened the door.

"What the hell are you doing here?" She demanded furiously, stepping outside and pulling the door almost closed behind her. The mid-May evening was uncharacteristically cold and damp and Hannah wasn't happy about standing on the doorstep with her grandson, but she'd rather that than invite her visitor into the house. "I thought I made it clear you weren't welcome."

Instead of answering her daughter, Sharon's gaze fixed on the toddler in her arms. "Who's this then? Aren't you a cutie?"

"Sharon!" Hannah hissed angrily. "How did you find me?"

"I went back to the Larkmead and bumped into Tasha Powell, remember her? You were mates with her daughter, Cara. She told me that you lived here. Apparently Tasha's granddaughter Courtney is friends with your son." The older woman said slowly, her gaze moving from the small boy to her daughter. "I didn't know you had a son."

"I have." Hannah informed her bluntly. "Now will you go, please?"

The blonde made no sign that she was intending to do as she was asked, smiling broadly. "I'm guessing this little one is yours. He's got your eyes. Are you married?"

"I'm not doing this, Sharon. I'm definitely not doing this here."

"Meet me tomorrow, then." Her mother pressed eagerly. "Please. Just for coffee or something. Give me half an hour of your time and then, if you really want, I'll leave you alone."

Hearing footsteps and someone calling her from inside, Hannah's desperation to get rid of her mother increased. "Fine. OK, I'll meet you tomorrow. There's a café called Kenny's near the police station. I'll meet you there at one, alright?"

"Thank you."

"Right, now go."

Sharon nodded and smiled. She reached out to chuck Dylan under the chin, but Hannah shifted her grandson so that he was out of her mother's reach. The detective stared coldly at the blonde, who nodded slowly and turned to leave. As she reached the end of the driveway and turned to walk along the road, the front door opened and Jen poked her head through.

She frowned at Hannah, wondering what she was doing outside staring at the empty driveway. "What the hell are you doing out here in the cold?"

"A woman was asking for directions." Hannah lied with a shrug, turning and heading after the girl. She shivered as the warm air inside the house hit her.

x-x

The next day, the Detective Sergeant's mind was anywhere but on what she was supposed to be doing. Hannah almost deafened the entire CID office when she yelled at Mickey for knocking over her coffee onto a pile of reports, before Stevie suggested that she went and had a break. Glancing at the clock and realising that it was twenty to one, Hannah nodded and grabbed her bag and jacket. She let the doors slam behind her, deciding that she had enough on her plate and choosing to ignore Mickey's annoyed remark that she had obviously had another row with Jo.

Pausing at the bottom of the stairs, Hannah saw her daughter in the reception area, leaning on the desk and engaged in a conversation with Leon and Beth. Knowing that she would look suspicious if she waited around for them to go through into the main part of the station, the Detective Sergeant took a breath and pushed through the doors.

"Alright?" She asked as casually as she could with her insides churning dangerously. "Slacking off again?"

"Yeah, yeah." Ellie replied with a grin, rolling her eyes. She twisted to lean backwards against the desk, looking at her mother curiously. "You off anywhere nice?"

"No." Hannah replied bluntly. Seeing the confused look on the PCs' faces, she smiled weakly. "Just got to meet someone I'd rather not."

Leon tilted his head to one side. "Need back up, Sarge?"

She smiled gratefully. "Thanks, but no thanks, love. I can handle her. Catch you later."

Not waiting for any response, the red-head left the station quickly before she changed her mind. She was having to work so hard not to turn around and go back to work. The only thing stopping her doing that was Sharon's assurance that if, after half an hour, she still didn't want anything to do with her mother, Sharon would leave. Hannah wasn't sure whether she believed the woman would stick to her word, but it was the only way she stood a chance of seeing the back of her.

Ordering a large black coffee, Hannah took a seat at the table in the corner and waited for her mother to appear. Glancing at her watch, the detective saw that one o'clock had been and gone. Scowling at the time, she decided to give it until half past before leaving; that way she could claim the higher ground in any argument they might have. And Hannah was in no doubt there would be an argument.

It was two o'clock before Sharon appeared. Hannah was just leaving, muttering under her breath and earning herself some curious looks from the other customers as she stormed towards the door. On the threshold she walked straight into her mother. Sharon smiled weakly, offering her a flimsy excuse about buses.

"I've got to get back to work." Hannah informed her coldly, pushing past. She pulled her cigarettes and lighter out of her pocket and lit one, leaning against the wall of the café and taking a deep drag.

"Still smoking, then? Doesn't look like you're in too much of a hurry to get back." Sharon murmured a couple of minutes later. The detective glanced sideways and saw that her mother was holding out a takeaway cup of coffee. "I asked the girl behind the counter what you were drinking. I hope this is right?"

For a couple of seconds, Hannah just stared at the cup. Then she decided that her need for caffeine was greater than her anger at the woman. Dropping her cigarette end, she accepted the drink. "Thanks…"

"So… have you got time for a chat?"

"Like I said, I have to get back to work."

"Ten minutes?"

Rubbing her eyes tiredly, Hannah sighed. Then she nodded. "Ten minutes."

Sharon beamed at her. They re-entered the café and took a seat either side of the table Hannah sat at before. A few minutes passed in silence. Apparently Sharon didn't know how to start or what to say and Hannah wasn't inclined to take the lead. She was curious to hear what the woman could possibly have to say to her, what excuses she would come up with. She couldn't deny that she was curious about the idea of having another brother. Hannah knew she had no right to refuse to let Max and Freya know she was alive and wanted to see them, but she couldn't see that Sharon had any right to expect anything.

"You've wasted half your ten minutes already."

"So… you never answered me last night; are you married?" Sharon asked, smiling at her across the table.

"No. Never even close."

"Boyfriend?"

"No."

The blonde frowned slightly. "So?"

"I've got a girlfriend; her name's Jo." Hannah informed her calmly. She saw her mother's eyebrows rise so high that they almost shot off the top of her head. "We've been together four years… on and off. She's even adopted my kids."

"How many children have you got?" Sharon asked, completely glossing over the information about Jo.

"Four. Well, five, I suppose." The detective corrected herself, thinking about Jen.

"You suppose?"

Not sure she wanted to get into the complications of her life with the woman, Hannah glanced at the time. She stood up, gathering her coat and bag and winding her scarf around her neck. "I've really got to go. My boss will kill me if I'm late. Well, any later than I already am."

"Can we… can we do this again?" Sharon asked, standing up as her daughter made to leave the café. She grabbed her own things and followed quickly. "Properly… with Max and the children?"

Hannah bit her lip. "I don't think so. If you can't even turn up on time to see me then I'm not going to let you do that to the kids. Besides, we're very busy. I've really, really got to go."

"Hannah, please…"

The woman sighed. "Look… I need some time to get my head around this. Give me a couple of days and I'll think about it."

x-x

"So then I checked the bank records for Kendrick and there were three payments to him from Alforston Holdings over three months; five grand a piece." TDC Baker was saying, a self-satisfied smirk on his face. He leant forward and waved his hand in front of his Sergeant's face, causing her to jump. "You alright, Sarge?"

"Hmm? What were you saying?"

"I was just saying that Alforston Holdings paid Nigel Kendrick fifteen grand over three months."

"Bloody hell!" Hannah muttered, accepting the records that the young man was holding out in her direction. "That's a hell of a lot considering they were supposed to be going into liquidation. How did we not pick up on this before?"

"I dunno…"

She exhaled sharply. "And I suppose it's me that's going to have to go and explain this one to the DI?"

When Ollie just grinned at her, the woman rolled her eyes and stood up. She took hold of the sheets of paper and stalked towards the DI's office, knocking sharply and waiting for him to call her in. As expected, Neil wasn't best pleased that the payments hadn't been brought to his attention before. Hannah had to listen to him questioning what the team were doing when they were supposed to be chasing up the leads on the bank statements. Letting her mind wander, the red-head waited until he had dismissed her, before leaving the office and returning to her desk.

"You owe me, Baker." She snapped at the young trainee, frowning as he smirked in response. "Can't you just concentrate and spot things first time round?"

"Sorry, Sarge." He had the good sense to look suitably chastised. Then he glanced at the time. "It's ten… fancy going for a drink seeing as we're done for the day? My shout?"

"No, not tonight; I'm due back in at six tomorrow morning and I've had a hell of a shift." She told him, switching off her computer and pulling on her jacket.

"Another time?"

Nodding distractedly, Hannah headed for the doors. "Yeah, maybe."


	3. Chapter 3

Hannah had already been at work for three hours and was just on her way out to bring in a suspect when Jo and Ellie arrived for their shift the next morning. She sent them both a fleeting smile as she crossed the yard quickly with Ollie and climbed into a pool car, smacking the young TDC around the head as he whistled at her daughter. He laughed, telling her not to worry because Ellie wasn't his type and she rolled her eyes at his arrogance. Putting the car into reverse, Hannah glanced in the mirror and saw Jo pausing to talk to one of the new PCs who was heading out in one of the area cars. Hannah's eyes narrowed as the young woman laughed and laid her hand on Jo's arm for a moment, before smiling and heading away.

"Sarge?" Ollie brought her attention back to what they were supposed to be doing and she nodded. "28, Garside Road, right?"

"Right." She agreed with a nod, swinging the car round and heading away from the station.

They drove in silence for a while, before the young man sighed and turned to look at her carefully. "Look… you can tell me to sod off, but are you OK, boss?"

"Sod off." Hannah replied with a small smirk. "Don't worry about me. You just concentrate on not getting me a bollocking from the Guv today, yeah?"

"Yeah, alright." He agreed with a grin.

They parked up outside the house where their suspect lived and climbed out. Hannah banged on the door and, when they received no answer, she motioned for Ollie to go round the back and make sure he wasn't trying to escape. The young man returned moments later and informed her that there were no signs that anyone was there. After a while longer, banging on the door and still receiving no answer, the detectives gave up and returned to the station.

Neil emerged from his office, asking whether they'd brought the man in and Hannah was forced to admit that they hadn't. The DI nodded and opened his mouth. Then he shut it again and shook his head, retreating into the office and closing the door. Exchanging a look with Ollie, Hannah shrugged and carried on trawling through the databases for a match on the car they were still trying to trace. It took a long time, but finally she got an address and motioned for the trainee DC to follow her back down to the pool car.

"What are we doing, Sarge?" He asked.

She raised her eyebrows at him. "Really?"

"So you know where Frost is?"

"No, Ollie. Are you pretending to be this stupid or are you actually not taking anything in?" When he just looked blankly at her, she exhaled sharply. "I've managed to get an address for that Renault that was on the CCTV footage from the garage round the corner from the Travel Agents." When he still looked blank, she sighed and rolled her eyes. "Eddie found a trace of metallic green car paint on the window frame that was rammed. The CCTV from the garage showed a metallic green Renault Megane Coupe driving in the opposite direction of Henderson and Tweed's at about the time of the robbery."

Ollie nodded and clasped the door handle as Hannah shot round the corner too quickly. "So we have another suspect?"

"Maybe… or we might have a witness."

"But if they're a witness, why didn't they come forward?" He queried, earning himself a grin.

"Now you're thinking like a detective." She told him. "That's the first sensible thing you've said all day."

"Apart from offering to get you coffee?"

She smirked. "Apart from that."

Climbing out of the car, Hannah headed up the garden path and rang the doorbell. The house wasn't what she would expect as the home of someone involved in the type of robbery that had been carried out on the top-end Travel Agents, but she'd been a police officer long enough to know that you couldn't base any judgements on appearances. Beside her, Ollie fidgeted and she slapped at his arm, frowning.

"Can I help you?" A young woman asked, opening the door and looking at them suspiciously.

Hannah smiled and flashed her warrant card. "Hi, DS McKay, TDC Baker. Are you Mrs Wilshaw?"

"Yeah?"

"Can we ask you a few questions about your whereabouts and the whereabouts of your car between 11pm last night and 4am this morning?" The Detective Sergeant asked calmly. When the woman didn't answer, but moved aside to let them in, she walked into the hallway. At the sound of children shouting from somewhere upstairs, the young woman sighed. "Don't mind us; I've got kids myself."

Showing themselves into the living room, Hannah and Ollie perched on the sofa, glancing around. It was expensively decorated; something that immediately raised Hannah's suspicions. She wasn't sure why, but something seemed out of place.

"So, how can I help you?" The young woman asked, reappearing moments later with a toddler clamped to her hip.

"Well, we'd like to know where you were last night, Mrs Wilshaw." Ollie told her quickly before Hannah could open her mouth.

The woman sighed. "I was here; I've got three children under five, where d'you think I'd be?"

"And your husband?"

"He's away on business."

"Whereabouts?"

"Cardiff." Mrs Wilshaw told them sharply. She was still standing, bobbing slightly as she attempted to stop her son grizzling.

"And does anyone else have access to your car?" Hannah asked, tilting her head to one side slightly.

"Eh?"

"Your car was picked up on CCTV footage leaving the scene of a crime last night."

The woman scowled. "Can't have been my car. I was here all night with my kids and Tommy was in Cardiff."

"I'm afraid we can prove it was your car, Mrs Wilshaw." The DS said bluntly. "When did your husband go away?"

"Last Friday and he's due back tomorrow."

Ollie nodded and made a note in his notebook. "Do you have contact details for your husband we can use to speak to him?"

As she scrabbled around in the desk in the corner, finally pulling out a business card which she pushed roughly in Hannah's direction, the two officers exchanged a look. Something clearly wasn't adding up and it was down to them to prove what it was. Saying goodbye, but warning her that they would probably want to speak to her again, the detectives left the house. Ollie walked around the car, spotting the point where the paint had been scraped off instantly and taking a photo on his mobile.

On the way back to the station they were both deep in thought. At least Hannah assumed that Ollie was thinking about the case and not just staring blankly out of the window, although she couldn't be entirely sure. Following his track record it was a possibility. In the yard, she climbed out of the car and turned to head inside with the trainee. They passed Jo leaving with the young PC she'd been talking to earlier, deep in conversation.

"Sarge?"

"What?" Hannah snapped, realising that Ollie had been trying to get her attention for a couple of minutes.

"I was just saying that if Mrs Wilshaw was telling the truth about where she was last night, then she must be lying about where her husband is."

"Or he might have lied to her about going away." The red-head pointed out with a shrug as they headed up the stairs to CID.

"Unless… I know it's a long shot, Hannah, but what if there are more than two sets of keys to the car?" Ollie suggested.

She frowned lightly. "So Mrs Wilshaw lied?"

"Well maybe… or maybe she doesn't know."

"What d'you mean?"

"What if a third party has keys to the car and she doesn't know?" The young man wondered. "What if Mr Wilshaw is actually away and she was at home and the other person used the car to rob the Travel Agents?"

Thinking for a moment, trying to get her head around what he was suggesting, she shrugged. "So does Mr Wilshaw know someone else has keys or not? Is he in on this? Maybe being in Cardiff is to make sure he has an alibi, but he is involved?" Raising her eyebrows at Ollie, Hannah smirked. "Bloody hell, TDC Baker, I think you've just given us a new direction to take."

* * *

_**A/N: Thank you so much for reading! And thank you to **_**Anastasia Dove**_**, **_**MissWritingStorysObsessed**_** and **_**GirlonaBridge**_** for your reviews! :D**_

_**x**_


	4. Chapter 4

"Hannah, I've run Tommy Wilshaw through CRIMINT and it looks like he's got connections." Ollie informed her, perching on her desk and showing her the information he'd discovered. "He's clean, but his known associates include burglars, shoplifters, armed robbers… the list goes on…"

The Detective Sergeant raised an eyebrow and tapped at the monitor of her computer. "I had a look on the database myself and discovered that last week a similar robbery took place on an exclusive Travel Agents in Cardiff. The DI's on the phone with Cardiff Central CID at the moment finding out the details of their investigation to see if there might be a link."

"D'you think there is?"

"No idea… it's possible. The fact that Tommy Wilshaw told his wife he's on business in Cardiff is a bit of a coincidence otherwise." She sighed deeply and took a gulp of coffee. The last thing she wanted was a joint operation with Cardiff.

They glanced up quickly as the DI's office door opened and he poked his head out. Motioning for the pair to enter the room, he returned to his desk and waited until the door was closed before speaking.

"Right, before you leave for the night I thought I should fill you in. I've just spoken to DCI Price from Cardiff Central CID." He informed them. Hannah had to work hard to keep her face expressionless. "It appears that we could be looking at a connection between the robberies. The investigating officers at their end are coming down tomorrow to liaise and see if we can work this out between us."

"Great…" Hannah murmured wondering what she could possibly have done in a previous life to have so much going wrong at once. Maybe things had been going too well for too long and now the universe was reminding her that life was a bitch.

"Didn't you used to work there, Hannah?" Neil asked suddenly, remembering where the Detective Sergeant had transferred to Sun Hill from.

She nodded. "Yeah, for a while… two and a half years."

"You'll probably know the officers they're sending over, then; DI Owen Kelton and DS Vanessa Davies?"

If Hannah had thought things couldn't get much worse before she heard that information she'd been wrong.

Sensing that his superior's mood had just plummeted, Ollie caught her arm as they left the office and suggested they went for the drink he'd offered her the night before. She smiled weakly and shook her head.

"I'd better not. It's the first night Jo and I have had off together for about two weeks." She sighed. "It feels like about two years."

Nodding, he watched her gather her things and leave the office quickly.

x-x

She barely listened as Jo told her about the phone call she'd received from the fertility clinic about her next appointment. As the brunette moved to the calendar, flipping through the already crowded pages and talking through what they'd discussed, Hannah found herself tuning out and replaying the events of the last couple of days on a loop in her head.

Later, as Hannah's mobile vibrated against the table and she grabbed it quickly for the fifth time since they'd sat down in front of the television, Jo frowned. She watched wordlessly as the younger woman read the message and typed a short reply, before putting it down again.

"Anything interesting?" She asked casually, intrigued by the expression on her girlfriend's face that she couldn't read.

"No, nothing." Hannah replied at once. She smiled weakly. "So, you were saying something about Jen's dance class?"

Jo nodded and returned to the conversation they'd been having before the interruption, telling her girlfriend about the dance show the seventeen-year-old was involved in. Hannah barely listened, her mind flitting between the sender of the messages she'd been receiving all evening and the impending arrival of the Welsh detectives in the morning. Catching the end of the brunette's sentence, she blinked.

"Sorry, what was that?"

"Were you listening to anything I just said?" Jo demanded in annoyance.

"Of course! You were saying that Jen's dance class are doing a show in the summer." Hannah replied with a shrug.

"And after that?" The red-head hesitated, having no idea what else her girlfriend had been saying. "I didn't think so."

Picking up her glass of wine from the coffee table, Jo stalked out of the living room, slamming the door behind her. Hannah sighed and buried her head in her hands as she heard the woman stamping up the stairs. A second or two later the bedroom door slammed. Still with her head in her hands, the red-head leant back on the sofa as her mobile vibrated again. Snatching it up, she read the message.

'_Please, Hannah. I just want to make things right. Mum x_'

Wondering why Sharon wasn't getting the message, Hannah deleted the text just as she had with the previous five, this time without replying. She sighed loudly. It was at times like these that she missed having her sister and eldest daughter around. Freya and Ellie always knew what to say; even if it wasn't what Hannah wanted to hear. They would no doubt have told her to go and apologise to Jo; told her to tell her girlfriend what was going on in her head. But she couldn't. She couldn't even speak to her daughter about things at the moment.

Picking up her mobile again, she dialled Sam's number, hoping that her friend wasn't at work. After a couple of rings, the call was answered and Hannah heard the older woman's husky tones in her ear.

"Sam… I know it's late, but d'you fancy a drink?" She asked, glancing at the time and realising that she should probably be going to bed, not the pub.

"Isn't this the first night you and Jo have had off together in ages?" Sam asked. When Hannah didn't answer she sighed. "Have you had a row?"

"All my fault, I assure you." The younger woman agreed. "But… I need… I can't talk to Jo about…"

At once her friend sounded concerned. "What is it, love?"

"I just… Can I come over?"

When Sam agreed, Hannah scribbled a note to whoever was bothered to let them know that she'd popped out and picked up her keys. Within ten minutes she was knocking on her friend's front door and found herself being pulled into a tight hug. Sam steered her onto the sofa and handed her a mug of tea, knowing that alcohol and coffee were probably not a good idea in the state she was obviously in. By the looks of it, though, Hannah was already well over the limit to drive. Sam frowned at the woman's stupidity but said nothing, knowing it would do no good at the moment.

"Come on then, what's happened?" She prompted gently.

"My life is about to implode and there's nothing I can do about it."

The blonde frowned. "What are you on about?" As Hannah started babbling about Jo and work and, to Sam's confusion, her mother, the older woman just sat and listened. When she burst into tears, Sam wrapped an arm around her, rocking her gently and stroking her hair. "D'you wanna go through all that at a speed and volume I can understand?"

"My Mum's back."

Sam frowned even more deeply. "I thought your Mum was dead?"

"So did I; I thought she died five years ago." Hannah replied, burying her head in her hands. "But she turned up at the station on Monday and she's definitely alive."

"Jesus… what did Max say? Or Ellie?" She paused as Hannah avoided her eyes. "You haven't told them? Have you told Jo?"

"No…"

"Han!"

"What am I supposed to say?"

"How about, 'My Mum isn't actually dead and she's come to visit?'" Sam suggested, raising an eyebrow. "She is Max and Freya's Mum and the kids' grandmother."

The red-head growled irritably. "But she'll just screw them up, Sam. She'll ruin everything."

"How do you know that? Is she still on the heroin?"

"No…" Hannah admitted reluctantly. "She actually looks really good… I almost didn't recognise her at first. Apparently she's been clean for a couple of years and she's married and has another son. But that still doesn't mean she has the right to expect anything… she waltzed out of our lives sixteen years ago and we've had pretty much no contact since."

"I understand that. But if she's here and she's sorted herself out… maybe she really wants to make it up to you? You know what it's like being a mother; whatever happens they're still your kids."

"She can't expect me to pretend that nothing's happened. I'm thirty-five-years-old and I have no happy memories of her and Pete. None at all." Hannah ranted. She stood and made her way into Sam's kitchen. The blonde sighed as her friend hunted through the cupboards, returning with a bottle of vodka and two glasses. She shook her head as Hannah offered her one of the drinks and sighed as she shrugged and downed both. "I know what she'll do; she'll turn Jo against me and she's already going off me. And she'll turn the kids against me. Then there's bloody Vanessa from Cardiff arriving tomorrow and–"

"Hang on!" Sam held up her hands quickly. "What d'you mean Jo's already going off you?"

Hannah shrugged. "There's this new PC… Francesca Monroe… she's all over Jo. I saw them a couple of times today and… I just seem to keep pissing her off all the time. I wouldn't blame her…" She drank more of the vodka and knocked Sam's hands away as they tried to move the bottle, hugging it possessively. "She deserves so much better. So do the kids. I'm just a screw up."

"Han…"

"No, Sam. It's true. Tomorrow everyone's going to find out what I'm really like and then I'm screwed. I'll lose Jo, I'll lose the kids and I'll probably lose my job."

The blonde's eyes widened in horror, wondering what on earth her friend was talking about. "What have you done?"


	5. Chapter 5

"_Tomorrow everyone's going to find out what I'm really like and then I'm screwed. I'll lose Jo, I'll lose the kids and I'll probably lose my job."_

_The blonde's eyes widened in horror, wondering what on earth her friend was talking about. "What have you done?" _

When Hannah just shook her head and refused to answer, Sam clutched her wrists, pulling her hands away from her face and fixed her with a hard look. "What have you done?" She repeated, fearing the worst. Hannah had done some pretty stupid things over the past couple of years and she'd put her career in jeopardy more than once, but the blonde had never seen her so distraught before. "Hannah!"

Before Sam could get an answer out of the younger woman she realised that Hannah had fallen asleep. Sighing in frustration she extricated herself from her position partially underneath the red-head and moved her so that she was lying down with her head on a cushion. Heading upstairs, she returned moments later and threw a blanket over her friend, sighing again as she looked at the sleeping woman and wondered what was going on in her head.

x-x

"Morning, you disgraceful human being." Phil called cheerfully the next morning, making absolutely no effort to stay quiet as he got ready for work.

Hannah groaned, clutching at her head as she pulled herself up into a seated position. "What time is it?"

"Half five."

"Shit!" She swore, leaping to her feet and grabbing her keys and phone from the coffee table.

Phil smiled in amusement, leaning against the doorframe with a mug of coffee as Hannah attempted to make herself look respectable in the mirror over the fireplace. As she walked towards him, he held out his mug and she took a grateful swig, pecking him on the cheek as she headed through the front door. In her car, she lowered the sunshield and glanced at her reflection again. Hannah prodded at the dark circles under her eyes and scowled at her reflection before sighing and slamming the flap up again. Glancing at the time, the detective estimated that she just had enough time to rush home, shower, change and get to the station before six.

Two minutes before the start of her shift Hannah walked into CID. She had scraped her still wet hair back into a messy bun and was pointedly ignoring the strands that were doing their best to escape. After dropping her things onto her desk, she made her way down to the canteen and asked for the strongest coffee possible. The woman behind the counter was as good as her word and after one sip Hannah felt the caffeine hit her.

"Morning, Han." Stevie called, when she arrived in the office a couple of hours later, looking irritatingly awake for that time of the morning when her colleague was still struggling. "Good night was it?"

"Not especially." Hannah griped, gulping down her fourth coffee of the day.

The blonde moved to perch on her desk. "Another row?" She asked sympathetically. "You OK?"

"It was my fault." Seeing Stevie's expression she smiled. "And it wasn't exactly a row, either. Jo realised I was thinking about something else while she was talking to me and stormed off. I've got a lot on my mind. My head's all over the place at the moment."

"Anything I can help you with?"

Smiling at her friend gratefully, Hannah shook her head. "Thanks, but no thanks. It's stuff I have to sort myself."

"If you're sure…" The blonde squeezed her arm. Then she grinned and leant forward conspiratorially. "So, I hear two of your ex-colleagues are coming down from Cardiff over this Travel Agent robbery business. What are they like?"

Hannah frowned. "They're… to be honest they couldn't have sent two worse members of CID."

"They that bad?"

"To me, yeah."

Stevie stared at her for a moment and then grinned again. "What did you do?"

Looking around to check they weren't going to be overheard, Hannah sighed. "I might have had a tiny little affair with DS Davies' husband – although in my defence I didn't know he was married, especially not to her. When I found out I ended it. Then… then I started seeing DI Kelton."

"Hannah!"

"I know!" The red-head groaned. "But then Vanessa found out about me and Lucas, her husband. Then it all came out about me and DI Kelton and I had to leave."

"Well… that's all in the past now, yeah?" Stevie pointed out. "You're with Jo, now."

"Yeah…"

"Han?"

"I don't want… what if… I've got a track record; one that I'm really not proud of. I don't want Jo to think…"

At the prospect of gossip, her friend's eyes lit up. "Track record? Come on, what are we talking here?"

"Stevie!" Hannah complained, frowning at the blonde.

"It can't be that bad, Hannah. We've all had relationships we'd rather forget."

"I doubt… I've had twelve relationships, if you can count them as relationships, since I was thirteen and ten of those have been with police officers. Apart from Jo, the longest lasted just over two years and that was an affair with my Superintendent when I was twenty and he was almost fifty." The red-head told her bluntly. "So yeah, Stevie, it's pretty bad."

Realising the main thing that Hannah was scared of, her friend sighed. "You're scared Jo's gonna find out and think that you're only with her 'cos she's a cop, right?" Hannah nodded. "But Han… she's the first woman you've been with, isn't she? Surely that says something. And it's your longest and, from what I can tell, strongest relationship. Don't push her away because you're scared."

"Yeah… but then there's PC Monroe as well…"

Stevie grinned. "Jo wouldn't go there, Han. She's got more sense."

"So not because of me, then?"

"Don't be a twat." Her friend laughed. "You're just worried that she'll freak out when she hears about your past and be flattered by a woman fifteen years younger than her. You know Jo better than that. Besides, I think your reputation as a ball-breaker is enough to stop Chesca doing anything more than flirt."

Before Hannah could ask when Stevie had had a personality transplant that let her offer such good advice, let alone laugh at the blonde's description of her, Neil's office door opened and he called across the room to her. "DI Kelton and DS Davies are down in the front office. I said you'd be right down, DS McKay. Take them straight to the briefing room and we'll go through everything we've got so far."

"Yes, Guv." Hannah replied, before exhaling deeply and shooting Stevie a look.

"I'll come with you." She offered with a smile.

Knowing it was almost as much out of curiosity than offering moral support, Hannah smiled gratefully nevertheless and took a deep breath. She straightened her jacket and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear before heading for the double doors and down the stairs.

The two Welsh detectives stood in the reception talking quietly between themselves. To Hannah's horror Jo was behind the desk, filing papers away in the cupboard behind her. She fixed a smile on her face as she stepped forward, ignoring the hard stare DS Davies was sending her way.

"Owen, Vanessa, hi." She said as calmly as she could. "This is DS Stevie Moss. Thanks for coming."

"Hannah… you're a DS now, then?" Vanessa replied coldly, holding out her hand for the two women to shake. Her eyes travelled up and down the red-head slowly. "Who did you have to sleep with to get that?"

"I'm sorry?" Stevie snapped in defence of her friend, raising an eyebrow at the woman.

Vanessa looked at Hannah and then laughed. "Just a private joke, right Hannah?"

"Right…" She agreed quietly, pointedly not looking at anyone. She could feel Jo's eyes boring into the back of her head. "Shall we go up? DI Manson's waiting in the briefing room."

As she ushered them towards the double doors up to CID, Jo stopped her. "DS McKay, can I have a second?"

"Sure…" Hannah agreed, almost reluctantly. She smiled at Stevie, who led the visitors upstairs, before moving to lean against the desk. Weakly she smiled at her girlfriend. "Look… about last night… I'm sorry."

"Yeah." Jo sighed. "Where did you go?"

"Sam's."

"Right…" There was a long pause. "What did DS Davies mean when she asked who you'd slept with to become a DS?"

"I'll tell you later."

As she turned to head up to CID, Jo leant over the desk and caught her arm to prevent her going. "No, Han, tell me now."

"Jo, Neil's waiting."

"And that's more important, right?" The brunette asked, letting go of her girlfriend's arm.

Hannah sighed. "Right now? Yes. But I promise you I'll explain later."

"Sure." Jo replied blankly, turning away and starting to sort through the paperwork again.

* * *

_**A/N: Thank you for reading sweeties!**_

_**Massive thanks to **_**Anastasia Dove**_** for your review! :D**_

_**x**_


	6. Chapter 6

Hannah sat on the opposite side of the briefing room from DS Davies and DI Kelton and resolutely avoided their gaze. She stood up when prompted by Neil and went through the information they'd gathered on the robbery, handing over to Ollie to explain what he'd found out about the possible extra car key.

"The similarities between these two cases are massive." DI Kelton said, standing up as Ollie took his seat once more. "We also discovered that the car used in Cardiff couldn't possibly have been driven by either of the owners, so there must be another key somewhere."

"We spoke to Mrs Wilshaw and she's adamant that there are only two keys." Hannah said quickly. "That tells me that she doesn't know about a spare, so her husband must. He's back today, so we'll send someone round to speak to him."

"OK, in the mean time I want you to look into Mr Wilshaw, Hannah." Neil told her with a nod. "We need to know everything; financial records, business details, anything that might indicate he could be involved in these robberies."

With a nod the red-head climbed from her chair, motioning Ollie to follow her. As soon as they were out of the briefing room she exhaled sharply. Realising that the trainee DC was about to ask what was wrong, she set him to trawling through the Wilshaw's bank details. Knowing that she really needed to speak to Jo, but well aware that the DI would kill her if she vanished, Hannah slumped in her desk chair and stared blankly at her computer. She had just forced herself to bring up the details of the man's company when she was aware of someone standing in front of her desk.

"Stevie?"

"Sergeant Masters wants a word." The blonde told her quickly. She leant forwards and lowered her voice. "I know you and Jo are trying to keep things quiet and professional at work, but that DS Davies is looking for gossip on you already."

"Doesn't surprise me." Hannah muttered. She stood up. "Where is Jo?"

"Waiting for you in the yard; she said she'd go to the Wilshaw's to speak to Mr Wilshaw with you."

Hannah smirked. "So I can't escape, then."

Stevie grinned and shrugged before heading away to ask whether their visitors wanted a coffee. The red-head grabbed her jacket and stood up. Moving past Ollie, she leant over his shoulder and muttered in his ear that she wanted something concrete by the time she got back. Glancing up, she noticed DS Davies giving her a knowing look and frowned, guessing where the woman's mind was going. Shaking her head in irritation, Hannah stalked out of the office.

Jo was leaning against one of the area cars waiting for her, chatting to PC Monroe. As they heard Hannah approaching, the young woman touched Jo's arm briefly and smiled at her. She sent the detective a slightly sarcastic smile as she passed, causing Hannah to stop and frown after her.

"Hurry up." Jo snapped, the smile dropping from her face. She got into the driver's side of the car and slammed the door behind her.

For a second Hannah considered refusing to go, but then she sighed and opened the door. As her girlfriend roughly put the car into gear and sped out of the station, the red-head wondered why she was trying to protect Jo from everything that was going on at the moment. Clearly the older woman wasn't bothered and it would be so much simpler to just dump everything that was bothering her on Jo as well.

"So? What's that woman's problem with you?" Jo asked after a couple of minutes, not taking her eyes off the road.

Hannah frowned. "OK… before you… well… OK. It's just… there was… I don't want you to think… it wasn't…"

"Just tell me, Han." The brunette urged, her voice softening as she realised that the younger woman was genuinely struggling to explain.

"Before I came to Sun Hill I had a… a bit of a reputation." She admitted, wringing her hands in her lap.

"What kind of reputation?"

"I couldn't exactly hold down a relationship. And… out of the twelve 'relationships' I had ten of them have been with colleagues." Hannah winced, looking sideways at Jo to see what her reaction was. She tensed as the brunette gripped the steering wheel tightly. "But they were nothing like you and me, babe. I never introduced them to the kids because they didn't mean anything to me. I just… between the kids and work I never had time to meet anyone else. I was so grateful when I got attention that…"

Jo scowled. "So… you were grateful when I showed you attention?"

"Yes. No! Jo, it wasn't like that!" She argued. "Do you honestly think that I'd even consider letting you adopt the kids if I wasn't totally in love with you?"

There was a long silence as Jo let Hannah's words sink in and she tried to get her head around it. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"How? How do you start that conversation, sweetheart? 'Listen, I've had flings with loads of the people I've worked with, but you're different, honest'? How would you have reacted to that, Jo? You'd have been out of there straight away."

"You don't know that."

"No, maybe not." Hannah agreed. "But I wouldn't have blamed you."

"So… DS Davies…?"

"No… No!" The red-head shook her head quickly. "Oh, god, no. Her husband, Lucas, was a CSE in Cardiff. Except I didn't know he was married at first and when I found out he was, I finished it. Vanessa… DS Davies… tried to get me sacked, but DI Kelton refused. I didn't realise at the time, but it was because he fancied me and decided I owed him for getting to keep my job…"

"Oh Han…" Jo let out a long sigh. "Why do you get yourself into these situations?"

"A psychologist would have a field day with me…"

"Your parents have a lot to answer for, sweetheart."

Hannah bit her lip. "Yeah… about my parents… You know I thought my Mum was dead? Well… she turned up at the station on Monday."

Jo almost crashed the car into a bollard as she turned to look at her girlfriend quickly, her eyebrows almost shooting off the top of her head. "What?"

"Sharon wants a chance to make it up to me and get to know the kids… I told her no. She just casually told me that she's got remarried and had another son."

"And she accepted that you don't want her around?"

"Not exactly… she pestered me until I agreed to meet her for coffee. But she turned up an hour late so I was about to leave. Then I gave her ten minutes and… well, I walked out because she wanted to see the kids. Besides I was late back to work." They pulled up outside the Wilshaw's house and Jo turned off the engine, turning to look at Hannah carefully. "She keeps texting me and ringing me… am I right to stop her seeing them? Do I have the right to stop her?"

"Of course you do!" Jo said firmly. "You've got parental responsibility over Max and Freya and the others are your kids–"

"Our kids." Hannah corrected her.

The brunette smiled. "Right, so it's your decision."

"But Freya, Ellie and Max are adults now… do they have the right to know?"

Jo shrugged. "Maybe… but think about what Sharon's done to you and your life. Do you want her to influence the kids' lives too?"

"I don't know. No, of course not." She sighed. "I've got too much on my mind to think about it at the moment."

"Like what?"

"Vanessa, Owen, the kids' stuff, work, you–"

"Me?" Jo chuckled. "What about me?"

"Well, not you so much; more Francesca Monroe."

"Chesca? What about her?"

Hannah raised an eyebrow in disbelief. At once her suspicious mind kicked in. In her opinion the only reason Jo would make out that she didn't know what she meant was if she had something to hide. "You're kidding me? Jo, are you the only person who can't see that she blatantly fancies you?"

"No she doesn't!"

"Really?" Shaking her head and glancing out of the window, she snorted derisively. "So she's not all over you all the time?"

"No. Don't be ridiculous!"

"I'm not being ridiculous!" Hannah snapped. "Stevie said that–"

"You spoke to Stevie about this?" Jo demanded. "If you were really that worried why didn't you talk to me?"

"Because I wanted someone to convince me that I was imagining things!" Her girlfriend admitted bitterly. "But Stevie agreed with me!"

Turning away and fixing her eyes on the road. "Well why don't you get Stevie to help you with this interview. I've got to get back to the station."

Hannah stared at her for a moment in angry surprise. Jo's behaviour was just making her think she was right to be suspicious. Wrenching open the door, she got out of the car and leant down to glare at the brunette. "You know what? Go and fuck her… see if I care."

Slamming the door closed Hannah stalked away furiously. She did care; of course she did. The red-head squeezed her eyes closed and took a shaky breath. Knowing that the comment would have hurt her girlfriend, she turned to return to the car and apologise. Before she could take two steps, however, Jo had driven off and Hannah was left staring after her in surprise.


	7. Chapter 7

"So, Mr Wilshaw, you're quite sure you've never booked a holiday through Henderson and Tweed's?" Stevie asked looking at the man carefully. After Jo had driven off, Hannah had phoned her friend and told her what had happened. The blonde had instructed her to wait for her to arrive before interviewing the man. When Mr Wilshaw looked blank at her question, she sighed. "The executive Travel Agents that was robbed."

"Oh, no… never." He told her firmly.

"You do realise that we can easily find out if you're lying to us." Hannah informed him bluntly.

"It's a good job I'm not, then." He replied, looking at her seriously.

She nodded and stood up as Stevie carried on questioning him. Wandering around the living room, she glanced at a row of photo frames on top of the cabinet that ran along one wall. They all seemed to show the Wilshaws on holiday in various exotic locations. Raising an eyebrow she returned the frame she was holding to the surface and turned to listen to what was being said.

Stevie was putting the theory about the spare key to Mr Wilshaw. He shrugged and repeated what his wife had told them; that as far as he was concerned there were only two keys to the vehicle. When it was pointed out that, in that case, both he and his wife were incriminated in the robbery he merely shrugged and said that it was down to them and the rest of the police to disprove their alibis.

"What d'you reckon?" Hannah asked as they left the house and climbed into the pool car Stevie had driven over in.

"He's definitely lying about something." Her friend replied, starting to drive them back to the station. "But what… I'm not quite sure yet."

Hannah nodded. "I'm sure there's a connection to the Travel Agents. I mean, you mentioned the name of it at least four times and he still acted as though he didn't know what you were talking about. It'll be easy enough to work out if he's lying about booking a holiday through them, but what if it's something else?"

"Like what?"

"I dunno yet." She admitted with a shrug. "But there's something we're missing here…"

They lapsed into silence for a while, both thinking over what it could possibly be that they'd missed. There had to be a connection between Wilshaw and the Travel Agents somewhere. Finally, Stevie glanced sideways at her friend. Hannah caught her eye and smiled weakly.

"What are you gonna do?"

"About what?"

"About Jo." Stevie clarified.

"Apologise. What else can I do?" The blonde chuckled at her words. "What?"

"It's just that Smithy and I were talking about you last night. He said when you arrived at Sun Hill you would rather die than apologise. But you seem to apologise to Jo every couple of days."

Hannah shrugged. "She puts up with a lot; I can be a total bitch to her."

"I don't doubt Jo gives as good as she gets."

"I told her to go and fuck Chesca and see if I cared." Hannah reminded her. "I should trust Jo; I know I should. I do trust Jo. It's just… I don't see how she doesn't realise what's going on. And if she does realise, why is she pretending she doesn't, unless she's hiding something."

Pulling up in the yard, Stevie turned off the engine and unclipped her seatbelt. She turned to Hannah and shrugged. "You can't control the situation, babe. You can trust Jo and see what happens, or you can confront Chesca and make yourself look like an absolute twat. Personally I don't think you're giving Jo enough credit…"

"I know." Sighing, she rubbed her eyes tiredly. "It's my Mum turning up… it's messed with my head."

"Your Mum? Eh?"

Realising that she hadn't got around to telling Stevie about her mother's reappearance, the red-head quickly gave her a rundown of the events of the last couple of days. She sighed as she reached the end of the story, before shrugging. "So as you can see, I'm not exactly thinking straight at the moment."

"That's understandable." The blonde agreed. "Have you told Jo?"

"Yeah… before pretty much accusing her of sleeping with Chesca."

"She'll understand when she calms down." Stevie assured her, climbing out of the car and waiting for Hannah to follow her lead.

They headed up to CID, conversation turning back to the case they were working on. The more they thought about it, the more both women were convinced that there was definitely something they were missing. It was probably a great big obvious thing written in neon lights that would be glaringly obvious if they stepped back and reassessed the case, but neither could think what it was.

Walking into the office, Hannah was immediately greeted by the sight of the two trainee DCs throwing screwed up balls of paper at each other across the office. Already on edge, she completely lost her temper, bellowing at them to grow up and stop acting like children. Suitably chastised, they clamoured for her attention, each wanting to show her the progress they'd made. Shooting a look at Stevie, who smirked and settled herself behind her own desk, the woman took a breath and nodded for them to explain their findings.

"So, I thought back to the Alforston Holdings case–"

"Thought back? We wrapped that one up two days ago, Ollie, not two months."

"Yeah, right." He agreed quickly. "But I looked through the accounts for Henderson and Tweed's and there's something funny going on." He handed her a sheet of paper, leaning over her shoulder to point something out. "See, they're making multiple payments in and out to this account here… nothing big enough to notice, but they're pretty much constant."

Hannah frowned. "What account is that? Is it some kind of cleaning firm or something?"

"No… that's there; one payment a month." Ollie told her quickly. "I called the bank and it's a business account in the name of Tranmore Development."

"Who are they?"

"Property developers based in Canley."

"Property developers?" Hannah repeated, as though she wasn't sure she'd heard right. "What have they got to do with a Travel Agents? I think you should do a bit of digging into this Tranmore Development. See what you can find, Ollie."

When Rob had informed her that the hotel confirmed that Tommy Wilshaw had been in Cardiff at the time of the robbery and he was clearly visible in the hotel bar on the CCTV at the time it had taken place, Hannah sent him to find out more about the robbery at the branch in Cardiff to see if there was anything they were missing. She took a deep breath and knocked on DI Manson's office door to tell him what she'd just heard. DI Kelton looked at her as she entered the room, a knowing smirk on his face.

"Guv, Ollie's just been through the Henderson and Tweed accounts and found that there are multiple transactions between them and a property development company called Tranmore Development. I've got him finding out more about it." She told Neil quickly. "Rob's talking to DS Davies about the other robbery."

"Tranmore Development?" DI Kelton asked and she nodded. "I'll phone that through to my boys and see if we've picked up on anything like that."

"It was the manager that reported the robbery, wasn't it, Hannah?" Neil asked, looking at her carefully.

"Yes, Guv. He was alerted by the company that deals with their security systems. If there is something going on I don't think he's involved. He seemed genuinely confused as to why anyone would target them."

"So you think something's going on?" The Welsh detective asked, raising an eyebrow.

Hannah clenched her jaw and nodded. "Yes, Sir. DS Moss and I agree that there's something more to this case that we're missing."

"Do you think an undercover operation might be justified?"

"I don't know, Guv." Hannah replied with a shrug. "It might turn out to just be a straightforward robbery."

"But you and Stevie think there's something else?"

"Yes."

"And do you think sending an officer in undercover might lead to new information?" Neil asked. Hannah smiled, pleased that he was asking her opinion in front of DI Kelton.

"I think it's possible, Guv. If there is something going on and the employees know about it, they're not going to tell us. If there was someone in there undercover, posing as one of them, they're more likely to talk about it."

"Right." He nodded. "I'll go and speak to the Super about it now."

Hannah nodded and left the office, heading straight over to tell Stevie what was going on. She and Mickey were sitting side-by-side, prodding each other as they poured over the reports on the desk in front of them. They glanced up as the red-head approached, grinning at her.

"You two are such children." She told them exasperatedly as Stevie gave Mickey's chair such a violent shove that he toppled sideways.

"You'd know all about them, wouldn't you, mate?" The blonde DS joked, poking out her tongue.

"And acting like one." Mickey added, settling himself on his seat and scowling at the woman who'd knocked him off it. "How is Jo?"

Frowning at her friend, Hannah's mouth fell open. "Stevie! Can't you keep your gob shut?"

"It's only Michael." She said lazily with a shrug. "Anyway, we don't have secrets in our little gang."

"So you reckon her and Chesca are at it?" Mickey asked, displaying a remarkable lack of tact and earning himself a smack on each arm; one from both women. "What?! Chesca blatantly fancies Jo–"

"Like I don't know that." Hannah muttered, perching on the edge of the desk and folding her arms.

"But Jo's barely noticed her." The male DC continued. "It's like… Chesca's an annoying fly that's buzzing around her and Jo's just tuned out and hasn't even noticed her existence."

The women exchanged a glance and then turned back to look at him with bemused expression on their faces. "So you're saying I've got nothing to worry about, basically."

"Exactly!"

Hannah nodded and smiled, trying not to laugh. "Thanks for that, Mick. You're actually really good at advice, ain't ya? Almost as good as you are at metaphors."

She and Stevie grinned as he looked confused.


	8. Chapter 8

"OK. After speaking to the Manager of the Canley branch of Henderson and Tweed's, we've decided that this is the ideal opportunity to put several officers in undercover." Jack informed the assembled group of CID and Uniformed officers in the briefing room later that afternoon. "Now, as we're still having to consider Tommy Wilshaw as a possible suspect, it means we can't use Hannah or Stevie in the op as both of them have spoken to him, despite them being two of our most experienced undercover officers."

From the row of chairs behind Hannah she heard a soft snort. She guessed that it had come from DS Davies and that she had taken 'experienced undercover officer' as some kind of euphemism. The red-head clenched her jaw and frowned, but said nothing. Beside her, Stevie shot her a meaningful smile, but no one else seemed to have noticed.

"I've spoken to Sergeant Masters and PC Gayle and they are both happy to take on the role," the Superintendent told them glancing around, "but we're going to need another volunteer."

As a mother, Hannah was glad that Ellie had a couple of days off and couldn't volunteer; she had no doubt that her daughter would have been the first to put herself forward otherwise. Her relief turned to dread as a young woman raised her hand. She frowned, clenching her fists in her lap as Jack turned to Smithy, who nodded and agreed that PC Monroe could be relieved of her usual duties to take part in the operation. The thought of the woman being in such close proximity undercover with Jo made Hannah feel sick.

"Right, while we set up the finer details of the operation and go through what we need to with Jo, Ben and Chesca I want everyone to get back to what you were doing." Jack ordered. As everyone rose to leave, he cleared his throat. "Stevie, Mickey and Hannah... can you stay for a moment, please?"

Having a vague idea of what was headed in their direction the three CID officers nodded and took their seats once more. Waiting until they, the three undercover officers, Smithy and he were the only ones in the room, Jack folded his arms.

"We need experienced handlers to work on this case. Stevie, I want you to work with Jo, Micky... Ben and Hannah, this is Chesca's first undercover operation so she's going to need a lot of support."

"Guv..." Hannah started. Seeing everyone looking at her expectantly she just smiled weakly. "Of course… It goes without saying."

"What was all that about?" Stevie asked as they left the briefing room and headed down to the canteen for a coffee. "Seriously, babe? 'That goes without saying'? Have you had some kind of personality transplant?"

The red-head rolled her eyes at her friend. "What was I supposed to say, Stevie? I opened my mouth before I thought about it and then I realised how ridiculous I'd look saying I didn't want to work with her and changed my mind. The Guv would have wanted to know why and I'd have looked a right knob. Besides, Jo would have killed me for embarrassing her like that in front of you lot."

"You looking a right knob? Never!" Stevie raised an eyebrow and shot her a small smirk. Hannah smacked her on the arm and rolled her eyes. "So… what?"

"I've just got to get on with it, haven't I?"

"And you can do that?"

"Do I have a choice?"

Stevie grinned. "Not really."

The taller woman smiled wryly in response and leant on the counter, ordering two coffees and fumbling with her purse. She squeaked in surprise as someone grasped her elbow roughly and pulled her away. Seeing that it was Jo, she chucked her purse at Stevie and turned to see what the older woman wanted.

"What the hell has got into you?" Jo hissed, keeping her voice low. "You're not still obsessing over the whole me and Chesca thing, are you?"

"So there is a you and Chesca thing?"

Jo exhaled sharply. "For fuck's sake, Han!"

"OK, OK!" Hannah held her hands up in surrender. "I was wrong, I'm sorry. I still don't trust her, but I trust you and if you say there's nothing going on, there's nothing going on." As the brunette exhaled and shook her head, Hannah grasped her arm, preventing her stalking away. "What's wrong now?"

"You know what they say; the people who accuse their partners of cheating almost always have something to hide themselves."

"Are you kidding?" Hannah demanded. "You think I've cheated on you?"

"That trainee DC's always following you around like a puppy… TCD Baker… Ollie." Jo told her, folding her arms. "He obviously fancies you; are you sleeping with him?"

"What? No!"

Jo leant forward and lowered her voice even more. "So why are you convinced there's something I'm hiding? Why are you making such a big deal of this?"

"I'm not!"

"You are!"

"Alright, I was concerned. But I've just told you I'm really sorry and I believe you."

"But you don't trust Chesca."

Hannah shook her head. "No, I don't. Everyone can see that she's throwing herself at you. And apparently you're oblivious to that!" As she saw Jo's jaw clench she sighed. "Look… I don't want to argue with you anymore. It's all we do at the moment. Let's just forget it."

"Forget it?"

"The argument!" The younger woman clarified quickly, seeing a fleeting look of panic passing through her girlfriend's eyes. Jo smiled in relief. "I won't say anything else, OK?"

Jo nodded. "We're both finishing at six tonight, right? We'll get a takeaway on the way home and forget about work and everything else, OK?"

"Or… we can get Ellie to babysit and we can go out?" Hannah suggested. "We haven't been out in ages. Or, if we have, we've had a couple of whining kids with us every time."

They both remembered their last trip to the cinema with a shudder and the brunette nodded. "Sounds like a plan to me. You phone Ellie and I'll book us a table, right?"

"Perfect."

As Jo headed away, winking over her shoulder and receiving a flirtatious grin in return, Stevie joined her friend and handed her a cup of coffee and her purse. The blonde shook her head. "You two exhaust me. One minute you're at war and the next you're like some bad romcom."

"We just do it to keep you on your toes, babe." Hannah informed her with a smirk. "Otherwise you'd rot your brain with reading too many gossip mags."

"Trust me; you two are more complicated than Brangelina any day."

x-x

The next morning Jo and Hannah walked into the station together, all tensions from the day before apparently completely forgotten. They paused on the ramp from the yard saying goodbye, receiving several whistles as Hannah leant forward and kissed her girlfriend. She tried to pull away, but Jo laughed against her mouth and pushed her backwards so that the red-head collided with the wall and was unable to escape, even if she wanted to.

"Come on you two!" Mel called, pausing as she passed them. "You might be love's young dream but some of us have work to do."

"Did you hear that, baby?" Jo asked, poking her tongue out at the PC. "She called us young."

Hannah reached forwards and chucked the PC under her chin with a grin. "Isn't she sweet?"

Mel rolled her eyes. "D'you know? I think I might prefer you when you're arguing. You get all… nice… when you're loved up. At least when you're stroppy cows I know to stay out of your way."

"Imagine how our kids feel." Jo told her with another grin. As Mel rolled her eyes again and headed after Roger to the area car they were going out in, the brunette Sergeant turned back to her girlfriend. "I'd better hurry up; I've got a meeting with Smithy, Stevie and the Super about this undercover op."

Nodding, the Detective Sergeant followed her into the building, suddenly serious. "Yeah, I've got one later too. Be careful, sweetheart." As Jo raised an eyebrow, Hannah laughed. "Alright, be amazing!"

"I always am."

"Oh, I know." The red-head agreed with a wink.

"Oh, stop!" Stevie demanded, apparently appearing out of thin air and pulling a face. "I'm gonna be sick in a minute."

Hannah laughed and stuck her tongue out, heading up to CID to find out what was going on up there.


	9. Chapter 9

On Friday, Jack had arranged for the three undercover officers to be interviewed for the positions that had just become open at Henderson and Tweed's. It was set-up so that Jo, Ben and Chesca would get the jobs, but it was open to civilians as well to avoid suspicion. Hannah smiled grimly, thinking that if the manager turned out to be involved after all, a lot of preparation and work would be for nothing.

"So..." She struggled to think of something to say to the young PC as they sat in the pool car round the corner from the Travel Agents waiting. A young woman left the building, looking unhappy as she wandered away. "This is your first undercover operation?"

"Yeah." Chesca agreed with a nod. Clearly she didn't feel as awkward as the detective about the situation and didn't feel the need to fill the silence with conversation. She pulled down the sunshield and glanced at her reflection in the mirror, rubbing under her eyes to remove non-existent eyeliner smudges.

"It's one of the most exciting parts of the job, in my opinion." Hannah told her, aware she was rambling. "But it's hard too; having to pretend to be someone else and being away from your loved ones... Have you got a partner or kids?"

The young brunette shook her head. "Nope… young, free and single; that's me."

"Oh right..." Everything inside Hannah was screaming at her to steer clear of the subject, but she couldn't stop herself. "Look... There's been some gossip round the station that you... well that you like Jo... Sargent Masters. I thought I should just make sure you knew that–"

"You and her are together." Chesca finished for her with a shrug. "Yeah, I know." She glanced at the clock on the dashboard before opening the door and getting out. Bending down to look at the red-head, she smiled cockily. "But that's life, hey. And I'm not really a big believer in commitment."

She slammed the car door and stalked away, leaving the older woman watching her in confusion. As the threat behind her words sank in, Hannah's mouth dropped open.

Pulling out her mobile, she stabbed angrily at the screen before holding it to her ear. "Stevie... You are not going to believe what Chesca just said to me."

She repeated the words to her friend, listening as Stevie tried to make her feel better about it. "I thought you said you'd decided to trust Jo."

"I did… I have… I do!" Hannah protested. "But I don't trust her!"

"Chesca?"

"No, the Queen." The red-head snapped sarcastically. "Of course, Chesca."

"Don't do anything stupid, Han." Stevie warned her.

"Like what?"

"Don't kick off." Hannah rolled her eyes as the blonde continued. "Whatever she's said, I very much doubt Jo will let it go any further. Besides, you've got a job to do, Hannah. You're Chesca's handler. You're a bloody good cop and you can't compromise yourself by letting anything happen to her or the operation because you're pissed off. Anyway, don't forget that if something happens to Chesca then Jo's at risk too."

Slightly offended, she frowned. "I wouldn't risk anyone, Stevie, not even some of the scum we deal with on a regular basis!"

"I know that. Just don't get distracted."

"Anything new on the Hussein case?" Hannah asked, changing the subject and tapping her fingertips on the steering wheel. "Did Ollie chase up the witness that claims to have seen the IC4 male running away?"

"Not yet, he's been looking at CCTV with Ellie."

Hannah arched an eyebrow. "Why?"

Stevie chuckled. "She was having trouble… apparently."

"Find him and tell him he'd better have spoken to the witness before I get back, because I'm not in the mood for his crap today." The red-head ordered. She glanced up and spotted the PC she was waiting for heading towards her, a smirk on her lips. "Oh… She's coming. I'll have to go. See you soon."

Hanging up before Stevie could reply, Hannah barely waited until Chesca was in the car before starting the engine. She didn't want to be in such close proximity to the woman for any longer than she had to be. Taking the corner at speed, she pulled onto the main road and headed in the direction of the station.

"Aren't you going to ask how it went?" Chesca asked.

She shrugged. "I can guess how it went; you're guaranteed the job."

They said nothing else on the journey back to work. Pulling up in the yard, Hannah was out of the car and stalking up the ramp before the PC had even opened her door. Hearing it slamming, the detective locked it by pointing the fob over her shoulder, not even turning round. At the door, she bumped into TDC Baker and her daughter heading out and folded her arms.

"Where d'you think you're going?" She asked the young man, arching an eyebrow at him.

Recognising the expression on her mother's face, Ellie smiled weakly and carried on walking, catching up with Mel at the bottom of the ramp and hurrying away. "I was just helping Ellie with–"

"I don't wanna hear it. I asked you to chase up a witness and DS Moss has informed me that you haven't bothered."

"Well, no, Han… I was–"

"Ollie, if I ask you to do something, you do it. And it's Sarge to you." She snapped, pushing through the doors and stalking through the station, leaving him to trail behind her. She passed Smithy but, when his smile was ignored and he spotted the trainee's abashed expression, he didn't attempt to stop her. "I don't ask you to do these things for fun, you know! This morning there was a vicious assault on a fifteen-year-old boy and he's in a critical condition in hospital. That witness might have seen the attacker and you couldn't even be bothered to go and speak to her?"

"Sorry, Sarge, I just–"

"No, you don't 'just' anything. Get down to her office and speak to her. NOW!"

He nodded and hurried away, leaving Hannah to take a deep breath before pushing open the doors to CID. Stevie raised an eyebrow at her from her desk and the red-head rolled her eyes, moving to perch on the surface.

"Give me some good news, please." She demanded, rubbing a hand tiredly over her face before taking a breath and smiling weakly at the blonde.

"Eddie's found a brick that he thinks must be the weapon in the assault case and he's looking for forensic evidence for us." The woman said at once. "There's also this…" She held up CCTV stills for her friend to examine. "Images taken from the camera just round the corner from where Hussein was found at around the time it happened."

"IC4 male… I'm gonna kill Ollie if we've lost time on this because he couldn't get on with what I asked him to do without me around to hold his hand."

Stevie shook her head. "Give the kid a break!"

"No! Why should I? I'm not his Mum! I've got enough kids to deal with without him as well!"

"Ah… talking of kids… Canley Primary called."

Hannah groaned and buried her head in her hands. "What's Theo done now? Actually, no, I don't want to know. Can you phone Jo and ask her to deal with her son. If she complains tell her she's off shift, it's her turn and I'm incredibly busy."

As the blonde opened her mouth to protest, Hannah darted away quickly, smiling broadly at her and ducking out of CID. She paused outside the doors and screwed up her face, wondering what to do. She had tonnes of paperwork to deal with, as well as needing to make some headway on this latest case. There were also reports to check and witness statements to go over from the theft case she'd been assigned the day before. But Hannah really couldn't be bothered.

She headed to the canteen, deciding that a coffee and then a cigarette might sort her out and force her to think straight. Half an hour, two coffees and three cigarettes later she was sitting on the desk in Smithy's office stealing crisps from his packet. He frowned at her, barely hiding a smile, pointing out that she had lots to do.

"Yeah, yeah…" She slid off the desk and ruffled his hair annoyingly. "I better go and see if Ollie's back. And if he is back, I need to check whether he interviewed the right witness; I'm not in tomorrow and I refuse to let his stupidity ruin my day off."


	10. Chapter 10

On Monday morning Hannah found a large file on her desk. She glanced at it with a frown, wondering what it could be. Flicking through, she realised it was notes on the assault case and sighed. Obviously the day before, her day off, had been the day when things clicked into place and now she had a pile of paperwork to look through before she could start doing anything useful. The first thing she spotted was that the victim hadn't made it; it was now a murder case.

She was just comparing two witness statements when her mobile beeped and she glanced at it distractedly. Seeing that the text was from Jo, she smiled and opened it quickly.

'_I think I can get us a cheap holiday… where d'you fancy? Costa del Brighton? xxx_'

Hannah smiled. '_Can you get a deal on Southend? I fancy somewhere exotic… x_'

'_Sorted. I'm so bored. How do people do this all the time? Anything interesting going on with you? xxx_'

The door of the CID office banged closed as the red-head typed her reply. '_Neil's leading a conga and Stevie's dancing on the tables again. x_'

"Morning, Sarge." Ollie called cheerfully, dropping into his desk chair and spinning it round to face her. "Good day off?"

"Yeah, it was nice. Jen and Max were revising all day, Ellie was in here and Jo and I took the kids out; she's tanned and I've got sunburn." She told him, leaning back and watching the young man carefully. "What did I miss on the Hussein case?"

"The kid, Ali Hussein, died yesterday morning. Eddie positively identified the object that was used to hit him as that brick we found at the scene."

She frowned, glancing at the photos in the file and nodded. "Any news on the suspect?"

"He's been identified from the CCTV footage as Cory…" He moved to stand beside her, leaning forward to flick through the papers in the file. "Err… Cory Sorrel; sixteen-years-old, lives on the Larkmead."

Wondering why she recognised the name, Hannah glanced up at Ollie. She was surprised at his proximity, her face only centimetres from his as she turned her head. "Has he been brought in?"

"No one's seen him since the attack, Han."

"What do we know about Sorrel?" She asked.

Hannah increased the space between them as the trainee DC made no signs of doing so himself, leaning back in her chair. As she did so, the doors opened and DS Davies and DI Kelton walked in with DI Manson. They all glanced across at her desk and the red-head felt her cheeks growing hot as two sets of eyes bored into her knowingly. She frowned and returned her attention to the case.

"He's got cautions for shoplifting and possession and Stevie reckons he's handy with his fists. He got expelled from Canley Comp last year just before his GCSEs."

"Canley Comp?" Hannah asked quickly, frowning again. "Hang on…" She looked closely at the CCTV image again. "I knew I recognised the name!"

"Hannah?"

Pulling out her mobile, she tapped at the contact list and held it to her ear. Ollie looked at her curiously, but she made no attempt to explain. His confusion increased as he listened to the one-sided conversation. "Hey, love, sorry to interrupt your revision. You know Cory Sorrel, right? Mmm… seen him lately? No, of course not. I just need to… how do you know about that? Really? No, of course I wouldn't do that. Right? Brilliant. OK… good luck this afternoon, sweetheart."

"Well?" The young man asked impatiently. "Who was that?"

"My brother, Max. He was mates with Cory Sorrel at school."

"Really?"

"I use the term mates in the loosest form. Anyway, Max reckons that Sorrel might be hiding out at the arcade on Tyrel Street behind the Larkmead. Apparently it's run by his Mum's boyfriend's brother." Hannah said, standing and moving towards the doors. "I'm gonna get Uniform onto it anyway."

She was almost at the door when his hand closed around her arm and pulled her back. Hannah glanced down quickly at the point of contact and Ollie removed his hand, blushing slightly. "Err… sorry… I just… What d'you want me to do?"

"Firstly, don't grab me." She ordered, arching an eyebrow and sneaking a look towards the DI's office to check no one had been watching. "But can you double check that we've spoken to everyone connected to Sorrel in case we've missed something."

"Sarge." He agreed with a nod, returning to his desk as Hannah went in search of Smithy or Callum.

They listened to her new information, barely raising an eyebrow at being told it had come from her seventeen-year-old brother. Most of the station had given up being surprised at the different types of people Hannah was able to contact for information. One day she had arrested a man during her shift and gone out for cocktails with his sister, who had been at school with her, that evening. Since the truth about her past had trickled into common knowledge in the station, she made no secret of how varied her acquaintances were; there was no point.

Once Smithy had radioed for the nearest unit to head over to the arcade, Hannah smiled and headed back to CID. Spending the remainder of the shift popping in and out of the office to take statements and interview suspects, she was surprised when she realised it was almost time for her to head home. Sorrel was tracked down and brought in just as Hannah was leaving.

He recognised her as Max's sister and she paused to explain what was happening to him. Rather than the cocky teenager she vaguely remembered, the boy seemed scared about what was going on. Frowning, Hannah watched as he was checked in at the custody desk, before being led to a cell.

"I thought you finished at six?" Callum asked, leaning on the desk beside her and spotting the contemplative expression on her face.

"Mmm… I did."

"What are you still doing here then? Ellie doesn't finish until eight."

Hannah turned and smiled. "No, I know. I was just thinking… I know Sorrel was ID'd from the CCTV footage, but I'm not sure it's as straight forward as we think. There's no forensics linking him to the scene and I'm not sure he did this." She spotted the expression on the Sergeant's face and sighed. "I'm not questioning whether he was there; I'm just saying I'm sure there's something we're missing."

"What? Like you're sure we're missing something on the Travel Agents case?" He asked, smirking.

She ignored his expression. "Exactly."

"Look, Han, you're not on shift at the moment and–"

"I'm gonna stick around and take the interview." Hannah decided, thinking out loud. She glanced at her watch. "I'll give Jo a ring and make sure everything's under control at home."

"Hannah! We're perfectly capable of conducting an interview without you."

"I know that." She told him with a sigh, raising a hand as her call connected. Callum rolled his eyes and shook his head at the action. "Hey, sweetheart, everything OK? Yeah… where are you? Oh… Well, no, I just… OK. I'll see you later."

"Problem?"

Shaking her head, Hannah smiled weakly. "Looks like you've got your wish; Jo's busy so I'll have to go home."

"We'll sort this whether you're in the interview or not." He assured her. "If Sorrel's innocent then we'll find out. If not, then you won't have to feel embarrassed and I won't make you admit that I'm right."

Hannah grinned and smacked him lightly on the shoulder. "Cheers."

She headed up to CID to collect her things. Passing Ollie on his way out, he suggested that they went for a drink. Hannah smiled, but told him she couldn't. Obviously disappointed, he left the office and the red-head perched on Stevie's desk, waiting until the blonde had finished the phone call she was making.

"Jo's gone to the pub so I'm stuck at home. Fancy a takeaway?"

"I'm going out with Smithy."

"Fine." Hannah smiled and moved to grab her bag and jacket from her own desk. "Typical, ain't it? She's off having fun and I'm stuck at home with the kids… it's always the same."

"Wednesday night we'll have girls' night out, right?"

"I'm holding you to that!"

By the time Hannah got home, however, she was quite glad that Stevie had already had plans. Sounds of arguing met her as soon as she opened the front door and she sighed, shrugging off her jacket and hanging it upon the hooks by the door. Closing her eyes and inhaling deeply, Hannah went straight into the kitchen and poured herself a large glass of wine. She had dropped onto the sofa and was flicking through the channels on the television before anyone noticed she was home.

"Oh… Han… I didn't know you were back?" Jen jumped as she walked into the room and spotted the detective sprawled on the sofa.

"I don't expect you heard the door over the shouting…"

"Max is being a right twa–" The teenager started, but Hannah held up a hand and sighed.

"I'm tired, babe. I can't deal with whatever it is right now." The woman told her, stifling a yawn. "How was your exam this morning? English wasn't it?"

"Yeah, it was OK. The question I did in that mock paper came up, so I knew what to write."

"Good. Have you eaten?"

When the girl shook her head, Hannah sent her to find a takeaway menu and find out what everyone wanted. After a quick shower, the woman answered the door to the delivery man and shouted up the stairs that dinner was ready. By the time they'd eaten, Ellie arrived to collect her son and Hannah ushered the younger children to bed. Jen and Max's argument seemed to be forgotten as the two teenagers joined Hannah on the sofa to watch a film.

Jen snuggled into Hannah's side and the detective stroked her hair gently, resting her cheek against the top of the girl's head. Caught up in her thoughts, she barely registered any of the action taking place on the screen and was surprised when the credits rolled and the teenagers moved. She smiled at them as they headed upstairs to bed, changing the channel in search of something to distract her mind until Jo got home.

Frowning at the news, deciding she didn't need to hear anything bad, Hannah considered sending her girlfriend a text to find out when she would be back. Then she changed her mind, not wanting to seem like she was checking up on her. Instead she stared blankly at the screen until, just as she was falling asleep, the front door opened.

"Hey?" Hannah called softly as Jo walked through the door, heading straight towards the kitchen. She jumped and turned quickly. "Good day… and night?"

"Oh, hi, gorgeous." Jo slurred, causing her girlfriend to raise an eyebrow. She didn't answer the questions, changing route to drop onto the sofa. Her aim was slightly off and she ended up falling on top of Hannah with a giggle.

The younger woman smiled and shifted slightly. "How much have you had to drink? You didn't drive, did you?"

"No! Chesca didn't drink and she gave me a lift." The brunette murmured pressing her lips against Hannah's neck, moving her hand slowly up her girlfriend's thigh before slipping it under the bottom of her t-shirt. Hannah tensed at her words, frowning. "She even offered to let me stay over at hers."

"Did she now?"


	11. Chapter 11

"Baby, wake up!" Hannah muttered for the third time, prodding Jo with her toe as the brunette groaned and refused to move. Trapped in her girlfriend's embrace, the red-head shoved her sideways so that she could climb out of bed. "Jo! We're going to be late!"

Glancing at the clock, the woman swore as she heard the doorbell ringing, knowing that it would be her oldest daughter dropping Dylan off on her way to work. Hurrying downstairs, Hannah gave Ellie a quick hug as she scooped her grandson into her arms. She settled him in the high chair with breakfast, before rushing upstairs to make sure the others were awake and have another go at dragging her girlfriend out of bed.

When it became glaringly obvious that she was going to be late, Hannah phoned Stevie and asked her to cover for half an hour or so. By the time Jo had left for the Travel Agents, the younger children had been dropped off at school or the child-minder's and she was on her way into the station, Hannah was relieved she'd warned her friend.

"What happened to you?" Stevie asked as Hannah rushed into CID, handing the blonde a cup of coffee as she passed. As the woman dropped into her chair and shrugged off her jacket, her friend wandered across the office and perched on the desk.

"Jo decided to get hammered at the pub and keep me up pretty much all night. Don't!" She warned as Stevie raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Then she refused to wake up this morning and has the worst hangover ever. Between her and the kids there wasn't a hope in hell I'd make it on time."

"This is why I don't have kids."

Hannah took a gulp of her coffee and shook her head. She lowered her voice and leant forwards conspiratorially. "Apparently Chesca didn't drink last night and then she suggested that Jo stayed over at hers when she was obviously too drunk to drive."

"No way?"

"Yeah… but Jo wanted to come home."

Stevie smiled. "I told you you should trust her. Even when she was hammered she didn't look at anyone else."

"I know, I know…"

"I hope you rewarded her for being such a good girl?" The blonde asked, her lips twitching as she did her best to remain serious.

Hannah raised an eyebrow and stood up. "I need to go and talk to Callum about the Sorrel case. Try not to fall over and injure yourself while I'm gone… I want to be around to laugh at you if that happens."

As she stalked out of the office, Stevie laughed sarcastically and Hannah stuck her tongue out. Heading down to the Sergeants' corridor, she poked her head around the office door and smiled at the man who was sitting at his desk, typing something on his computer. Callum held up a finger as he finished what he was doing. Then he looked up and smiled, leaning back in his seat.

"I'm guessing you're here about Sorrel?" He asked.

She nodded and pulled Jo's chair around to the front of Callum's desk. "Yeah, what did he say?"

"He's admitted being there, but he says he didn't attack Hussein."

"I'm assuming he's not telling you who did?"

"Nope." The man agreed with a shrug. "But there's no evidence to suggest that there was anyone else at the scene, so unless he starts talking soon we're going to charge him anyway."

"Let me speak to him." Hannah requested quickly, not able to reconcile herself with the thought of an innocent teenager being charged with murder.

"Han… he might just be lying to get himself out of trouble."

Shrugging, the woman nodded. "Yeah, he might. But he might also be telling the truth."

"He's not your brother."

"I'm well aware of that, Sargent Stone." She replied, raising an eyebrow. "But he's someone's brother… someone's son. We owe it to him and his family, not to mention the Husseins, to make sure we get the right person."

"Course… go on then." Callum agreed, heaving himself out of his chair and walking along the corridor with her.

They paused for a moment beside the desk, talking to the Custody Sergeant before Hannah was shown through to the cell where Sorrel was being held. He glanced up as the door opened and the red-head leant against the wall, folding her arms and surveying him carefully. The teenager rolled his eyes and hugged his knees to his chest, resting his head against them and avoiding her eyes.

When she didn't speak, he glanced up. "What d'you want? Come to ask me more stupid questions?"

"Maybe a couple." Hannah agreed. "But this isn't an interview." She moved to sit beside him on the bunk. "Look… I don't believe that you attacked Ali Hussein, but I think you know who did. My colleagues aren't convinced and if you don't give them anything then they're going to charge you with murder."

"Why do you believe me if they don't?" He demanded suspiciously.

"Because I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. So, are you going to talk?"

Sorrel snorted. "You can't do nothing to me compared to them."

"Them? Is this a gang thing?"

He narrowed his eyes and folded his arms. Realising that he had just ended the conversation, Hannah shrugged and retreated from the cell. She smiled at the Custody Sergeant who stepped forward to lock the door behind her and walked quickly back to the desk. Callum was leaning on it, flicking through a file while he waited, evidently wanting to know if she'd got anything out of the teenager.

"I think this is gang related." Hannah told him as they headed back towards his office. "Sorrel told me that we can't do anything to him compared to 'them'."

"There was no mention of Hussein being involved with a gang. How many different ones are there around the Larkmead, anyway? Three… four? And that's just the main ones."

"Surely it proves that there's more to this than we originally thought, though?"

Callum nodded slowly. "You might be right."

"Of course I'm right, love." She told him calmly with a shrug. Then she glanced at her watch and frowned. "Shit… I've got a meeting with the DI about this undercover op. I'll come and find you later, alright?"

He nodded as she hurried away, taking the stairs to CID two at a time. Slipping into the briefing room, Hannah took a seat beside Mickey, smiling weakly at Neil who sighed at her late arrival. He began talking them through the information that had come in from the three officers undercover in the Travel Agents. Hannah assumed that most of it must have come in from Jo and Ben, because Chesca hadn't told her anything important, although she'd written it all down and handed it to the DI anyway in her reports as the PC's handler.

"According to Chesca, there's a booking out to Bogotá in Colombia this Sunday, the 27th, in the name Colin Milbank and the return flight is Tuesday." Neil told them, writing the information on the board as he spoke. Hannah frowned; the information was completely new to her. "There have been several other flights to Bogotá over the past few months, with the return flights a maximum of three days later. My gut feeling is that it looks as though we could be dealing with the importation of drugs."

"Jo mentioned something about one of the girls working there getting annoyed when she heard that Jo had asked about Milbank." Stevie supplied quickly. "I think she said the girl was called Mandy Reynolds."

That name was scribbled on the board as well. Then Neil turned to look at them carefully. "OK, Stevie, look into her and see what you can find. Mickey, check out this Colin Milbank. Hannah, look into the accounts and see if there's anything connected to Colombia or Milbank. Vanessa, can you call your colleagues in Cardiff and see if there are any similar patterns at the branch of Henderson and Tweed's over there? Right, thank you." As they rose to leave, the DI cleared his throat. "DS McKay, can I have a word?"

"What's up, Guv?" She asked as soon as the door closed.

"I was just wondering why none of the information Chesca Monroe's given us was in your reports."

She frowned. "That's the first I've heard of Milbank and Colombia."

"Really?"

"Honestly, Guv. What reason would I have to withhold it?"

He shrugged and folded his arms. "That's what I was hoping you could tell me."

"There's nothing to tell. I'll ask Chesca why she didn't tell me when I speak to her later."

"Right. Make sure you put everything in your reports from now on."

Hannah nodded and left the office, biting her lip to prevent herself arguing. She knew that the PC hadn't told her about the flights when she'd spoken to her, otherwise they would definitely have been put in her notes. She'd even been writing about where the employees went on their coffee breaks in case it turned out to be important. The accusation that she might have been filtering what went into her write-ups was just insulting.

Not wanting to have to answer her colleagues' questions about what Neil had wanted, Hannah decided to take her lunch break early. Muttering something about needing to be somewhere to avoid awkward questions, she ducked out of the office and made her way down to the yard, wondering whether Jo would be free to meet up for lunch.


	12. Chapter 12

"How's the head?" Hannah asked Jo with a smile as they pushed aside the menus in the pub they'd gone to for lunch. Jo just looked at her meaningfully, raising an eyebrow. "Still bad, eh? That'll teach you to leave me at home with the kids while you go off gallivanting."

"Are you actually annoyed with me?"

"Of course I'm not." The red-head replied quickly. "Besides, you more than made up for it last night."

Jo smirked and then rested her head on her arms. Hannah reached across and stroked her hair gently, smiling at the delicate state her girlfriend was in. She knew better than to bitch about Neil or Chesca at the moment. There would be plenty of time for that when Jo wasn't struggling with a hangover. Besides, Hannah knew that she was more likely to get sympathy from the older woman if Jo wasn't grumpy.

"Oh!" Hannah suddenly remembered something she'd been meaning to ask for a couple of days. She guessed that if it was serious, Jo would have said something. "Stevie said Canley Primary called on Friday; what did they want? I completely forgot about it."

"Apparently Theo was telling the other kids stories again."

"Not the ones about our cases?"

"Yep… Mrs Sanderson overheard him pretty much giving a lecture about that murder case we had a couple of months back. You know the one where the body was found in a bin liner in the boot of the car."

"How does he even know about that?" Hannah asked in shocked confusion.

"My money's on Max." Jo sighed. "When Theo grows up he's either gonna be a copper, a pathologist or a serial killer."

"D'you reckon we should do something about it?"

"Like what?"

"I dunno…" The red-head shrugged. "Maybe he needs more stability at home or something?"

Raising her head off her arms, Jo looked at her girlfriend carefully. "What are you suggesting? You're not talking about work, are you? Or…" Her eyes flickered up to meet Hannah's slowly, as though she was dreading what she was about to hear. "Or are you talking about us?"

"Us? Us, what?" Immediately Hannah went cold.

"You said maybe Theo needs more stability at home. Are you… is that why you invited me out for lunch? Are you ending it?"

The younger woman reached out and grasped Jo's hand, linking their fingers and squeezing tightly. "No. No of course not. Having you around is the most stability they've ever had. Why would I end it when I've been fighting…" She trailed off with a sigh. Catching the expression on Jo's face she smiled weakly. "I know you don't believe me, but Chesca wants you, Jo. I warned her off and she told me that she didn't believe in commitment. Then last night she got you drunk and suggested you stayed over at hers. I'm fighting for you, babe. Why would I end it?"

"You stupid bloody cow…" Jo laughed softly. "The only person I was thinking about last night was you! You don't need to fight for me, sweetheart, I'm not going anywhere!"

They both relaxed, falling into conversation as the waitress appeared with their meals. Jo suggested that they redecorated the living room, earning herself a frown from her girlfriend who reminded her that Jo had convinced her to do just that several months before.

"I get bored easily." The brunette said with a shrug. Seeing the expression on Hannah's face she smirked. "With wallpaper, babe."

As time passed, both women realised that they needed to get going. Reluctantly they left the pub, walking back to the car. Hannah parked around the corner from the Travel Agents and turned in her seat to look at her girlfriend.

"No going out tonight, sweetheart." She said with a smile. "Ellie and I are both in until seven and Max is at work at five. Jen threw a strop when she realised she'd have to take all the kids with her to Molly's dance class."

Jo groaned. "When did everything get so complicated?"

Hannah pretended to think for a moment. "That would probably be around the time you met me."

"Oh, yeah, that's it." The brunette agreed, leaning forwards and pressing a kiss to her girlfriend's lips. The younger woman smiled against her mouth and tangled her hands in Jo's hair, holding her head still and preventing her from pulling away.

x-x

"Where've you been?" Stevie asked when Hannah returned to the office.

"I went for lunch with my girlfriend." The red-head replied with a broad smile. "Problem?"

"Nope, I'm just glad you're in a better mood. Oh… Callum was looking for you about the Sorrel case. He said to tell you that he's gone out to bring in a new suspect and he'll find you later."

Hannah nodded and made her way to her desk. She ruffled Ollie's hair as she passed his desk, laughing as he looked confused at her sudden good mood. Settling herself behind her desk, the Detective Sergeant immersed herself in the financial records that Neil had asked her to check through in the briefing. By the time Callum came looking for her she'd managed to identify several payments to a Damien Peterson, but nothing to Colin Milbank or Colombia.

Handing the records to Rob, she asked the trainee detective to run Peterson's name through CRIMINT and see if anything came up. Then she followed Callum out of CID and down to the Sergeant's office. He closed the door behind them, before talking her through the conversation he'd had with the new suspect in the Sorrel case.

"So it does look like it's gang related, then?" The woman asked as she considered what he was saying. "If this Luke Bellary is connected to the Larkmead gangs and he was seen arguing with Ali Hussein an hour or so before the attack… then it's quite likely to be him, right?"

Callum laughed cynically. "That easy, huh?"

"The mood I'm in, yes."

"Apart from the fact we've got no forensics linking him to the attack…"

"He doesn't know that, does he?" Hannah pointed out with a smirk. "If he thinks that we've got more than we do…"

The Sergeant exhaled sharply. "So you're suggesting we bluff about what we know? What if it backfires? Technically that's entrapment."

"No… I'm just suggesting we try and trip him up a bit. It's worth a try, surely?"

Callum sighed, seeing that she wasn't going to give up. He glanced at his watch and stood up, motioning for her to follow him out of the office. They made their way to custody and Callum asked for Bellary to be brought out. Signing the necessary forms, the detective waited until a teenage boy was led towards them. She groaned as she realised she recognised him as another of the boys her brother used to hang around with.

His eyes lit up as he recognised her, leaning casually on the desk and grinning at her. "Hey! It's Hannah, ain't it?"

"This is DS McKay." Callum informed him bluntly. "Shall we?"

They headed into one of the interview rooms and the Sergeant started it off formally. He began by going over what they'd talked about in the last interview, allowing Hannah to orientate herself with everything properly. After a while, she leant forward and fixed the boy with a searching gaze. He was sticking to the story that he hadn't seen Hussein for a few days.

"That's strange…" Hannah muttered. "Because we've got witnesses who claim to have seen you arguing with Ali less than an hour before the attack took place. Would you care to explain that?"

He twisted his face into a sneer and looked at her for a moment. Then he shrugged. "Yeah, alright, so we had a bust up. Don't mean I attacked him, does it?"

"What did you argue about?"

"He was trying it on with my girlfriend, weren't he?" Bellary told them, leaning back in the chair and folding his arms. He glanced at the duty solicitor. "Lydia told me that he wouldn't take no for an answer, so I warned him off."

Hannah wasn't convinced. "And that's it?"

"Yeah, I said."

"So…" She drew out the word as though she was considering his claims. Then she leant forwards, resting her elbows on the table between them and tilting her head to one side. "If we compared the fingerprints you gave when you were brought in with the fingerprints we found at the scene we wouldn't find out that they matched, no?"

There was a long pause. Bellary narrowed his eyes at Hannah, searching her face for any flicker of doubt or weakness. Then he jumped to his feet and leapt at her. His hands closed around her upper arms and he pushed her backwards, causing the chair to topple over and sending them crashing to the ground. Hannah managed to roll sideways and push him off her, holding up a hand to stop Callum jumping to her defence as she pushed Bellary away and glared at him.

"Sit down." She ordered, repeating it several times until he did as he was told. Callum moved to intervene again, but she stopped him, not wanting Bellary to think she needed protecting. When the boy was seated once more, scowling thunderously at her across the table, she spoke again. "So? Is that a confession? Did you assault Ali Hussein?"

"He got what he was coming to him." Bellary spat. He didn't move his gaze from Hannah's face as Callum charged him with manslaughter and assaulting a police officer. As they ended the interview and rose to leave the room, the boy grabbed Hannah's arm. "You'll get what's coming to you, too, bitch."

"Really? Well I hope it involves wine." She replied, totally unfazed by his threat. It wasn't the first she'd received and it wouldn't be the last.


	13. Chapter 13

On Wednesday afternoon Hannah was sitting in CID with a cup of coffee on the desk in front of her, beside piles of reports that she was supposed to be filling in after the resolution of the Hussein murder case the day before. Instead she had her feet propped up on the surface and was watching Stevie spinning Ollie round on his desk chair while Mickey and Rob flicked elastic bands at them. She laughed as the trainee's chair finally overbalanced and he toppled onto the floor.

Neil had gone out to investigate a potential aggravated burglary with Grace and, with the on-going undercover operation still not providing them with much new information, the detectives were having quite a slow day. They were using their unusual freedom in the office to be incredibly childish.

Grinning at the play fight that had broken out between Stevie and Ollie, Hannah leant forwards to pick up the receiver of her desk phone, clamping it between her ear and shoulder as she raised her coffee to her mouth and took a sip. "Hannah McKay."

"Hey, Hannah… your… your Mum's in reception." PC Green informed the detective in a low voice, obviously trying not to let anyone else hear.

Exhaling sharply, Hannah informed Beth that she'd be right down and left the office quickly. She burst through the doors at the bottom of the stairs and smiled briefly at the young brunette, before pushing her mother roughly towards the small room off the reception area. Just before she closed the door, Ellie walked through into the reception from outside and spotted her. The younger McKay waved Mel through into the main part of the station, telling her she'd catch up, and grinned at her mother.

"Mum… Smithy's asked me to work a double shift. Can you watch Dylan tonight?"

Distractedly, Hannah nodded. "Yeah, give Jen a ring and ask her to pick him up from Jasmine's when she gets Caitlin. Oh, shit, hang on… Jen's in an exam." She frowned, unable to think straight as she tried to keep her mother out of the conversation. Stepping forward, she pulled the door almost closed behind her. "It's Wednesday, isn't it? Max is at football until eight and Jen's got dancing at half seven, but between Jo and I we should manage."

"Shall I text Jo?"

"Yeah… she should be done at Henderson and Tweed's by half five." The older McKay agreed. "Can you also text Jen and remind her that she needs to collect the kids. Actually, Max hasn't got an exam today, so get him to pick up Theo and Molly and ask Jen to go to Jasmine's later. If they complain… let them know that I know where they were on Saturday night."

Ellie grinned. "Where were they?"

"You know that gig Jo said they couldn't go to…"

"They didn't?" The young woman's eyes widened and she laughed.

"You can't claim to be innocent, Ells… it's not like you took the blindest bit of notice of anything we told you at their age either." Hannah reminded her.

Laughing, the young PC nodded and said goodbye, heading through the doors to the main part of the station to catch up with her partner. Hannah waited until the door closed and shot a conspiratorial look at Beth behind the reception desk before walking into the interview room. Sharon looked at her carefully, a small smile on her face.

"Ellie, Dylan, Caitlin, Jen, Max, Jo, Theo, Molly." The older woman listed off the names she'd heard during the conversation. "Are you going to start talking to me, yet?"

"I've already told you I haven't got time for this." Hannah snapped. "Seeing as you were obviously eavesdropping you will have noticed that things are manic at the moment."

"Let me help."

"No way." The detective laughed at the idea, shaking her head and folding her arms. Her mobile vibrated and she glanced at the display, frowning as she read Chesca's name. Briefly wondering what the PC wanted, Hannah ended the call. She knew she should probably answer, but she wasn't in the mood. If it was important she could ring back later. "There's absolutely no way you're coming near my family."

"You never told me Ellie was a police officer." Her mother continued.

Hannah shrugged. "Why would I?"

"She's my granddaughter."

"And? We thought you were dead." Her mobile started ringing again and, once more, Hannah ended the call. "Look, I've got work to do. Stop trying to contact me. If, and I mean if, I change my mind about seeing you I'll contact you."

"You haven't got my number."

"I'm a detective; I'm sure I'll figure it out."

With a sigh, Sharon walked through the door Hannah had yanked open. "Well my surname's Cosgrove, now. I'm staying at the B&B on Rutland Road."

"Great. Bye."

Hannah turned away and went to lean on the reception desk, her head in her hands. Beth reached over and squeezed her shoulder comfortingly, before the woman straightened and smiled weakly. After the PC assured her that, once again, she wouldn't say anything, the red-head walked slowly up the stairs to CID.

"Rob… do me a huge favour; see what you can find on Sharon Cosgrove. If nothing comes up, try Sharon Hoyland… date of birth is 11th of February 1958."

"Is this to do with the Henderson and Tweed's case, Sarge?" The young trainee asked.

Hannah sighed and glanced at her mobile, deciding to call Chesca back. "Not exactly."

"Oh… I got that info back on Damien Peterson. He's got form for drug offences, so I passed it on to the DI."

She smiled gratefully, before sitting at her desk and redialling the last number to call her, clamping her mobile to her ear. It went straight to answerphone. Confused, the detective tried again. She didn't understand why the phone was turned off when the PC had only called her a matter of minutes earlier. Suddenly worried, she tried Jo's phone. It, too, went to answerphone.

Feeling sick, the red-head got to her feet and made her way over to Mickey's desk. She leant on it and looked at him seriously. "I think we've got a problem." She told him in a low voice. "Have you heard from Ben this morning?"

"No, but he's got the day off." Mickey replied, pulling himself up to sit up straight. He looked at her carefully. "Why? What's happened?"

"Chesca phoned me a couple of times while I was downstairs but I couldn't answer. I've just tried phoning her back, and I've tried Jo, and both their phones are turned off."

Mickey dug in his pocket for his own phone. "Don't panic, yeah? There's probably a totally reasonable explanation. Maybe they're in a meeting or something."

"No… Jo hasn't turned her phone off since Molly broke her arm and I couldn't get hold of her. She felt so bad about it that she wouldn't…"

"Let me speak to Ben and see if he knows anything before you start panicking." Her friend urged her. He sighed and dialled the number. He had a quick conversation with the PC he was acting as handler to, before shooting a quick glance in Hannah's direction. "Right… Ben's gonna pop into the shop and pretend he thinks he left something he needs in his desk. He'll give us a ring in a bit."

"Should we tell the DI?"

The DC shook his head. "Not until we know there's something to tell him. Where's Stevie got to?"

"No idea, she wasn't here when I came back up."

As Hannah waited, Mickey phoned their colleague and had a short conversation. "She's down in custody but she'll be back up in a minute. Apparently she hasn't heard from Jo today."

"I should have answered the call." The red-head murmured, putting her head in her hands and exhaling deeply. The thought that something had happened to Jo because she'd been talking to her mother was almost too much for her to keep to herself. "Why didn't I just answer the fucking call?"

"Why didn't you?"

"I was in the middle of something… I was talking to a woman in reception. I assumed it was just Chesca checking in or something. I thought that if it was important she'd call back."

The doors burst open and Stevie charged into the office. She came to a halt beside the red-head, looking between the two detectives quickly. "Well?" Hannah quickly told her what had happened. "We're waiting for Ben to get back to us. We can't send Uniform round to check up because that might tip them off."

"Hannah? I've got the info you were asking for." Rob told her quietly, making the woman jump as he approached.

"Oh… cheers…" She glanced quickly at the sheets of paper he was holding out, before folding them in half.

"Hang on…" Stevie smiled that the trainee DC. "Rob, get down to Henderson and Tweed's and pretend to be interested in booking a holiday."

He looked totally confused. "Err… OK?"

"I'll come with you." Mickey said, grabbing his jacket from the back of the chair. "I'll explain on the way."

* * *

_**A/N: Thank you for reading guys and massive thanks to **_**Anastasia Dove**_** and **_**GirlonaBridge**_** for reviewing! **_

_**On a slightly unrelated note, I was casually watching (read not really paying attention to) the TV and an advert for **_**The Syndicate**_** came on and all of a sudden Sally Rogers' (Jo's) face appeared and I actually screamed. I totally didn't know she was in it, but now I'll HAVE to watch because, lets face it, she's awesome!**_

_**x**_


	14. Chapter 14

"… there was no sign of anyone there, Guv." Mickey folded his arms as he filled the DI in on what he'd discovered when he and Rob had gone down to the Travel Agents. "It was totally deserted. I rang the manager and he was confused; apparently he's had a few days off and left a Mandy Reynolds in charge. According to Ben she's a bit… well, he said the power went to her head."

"Still no word from Jo or Chesca?" Neil asked, almost confirming the fact, rather than asking a question.

"No, Guv."

Neil sighed. "Right, get onto TIU and get them to set up a trace on their mobiles. Get Uniform to check Chesca and Jo's houses to make sure they're not there. I want CCTV checked from the streets around the shop and any security footage from the shop's own CCTV. Hannah–" He glanced around. "Where's Hannah?"

"She's still calling their mobiles." Stevie told him quickly.

"Is it true that she ignored two calls from PC Monroe this morning?" DS Davies asked, the ghost of a smirk on her lips.

Stevie glared at her. "She was in the middle of dealing with something."

"But surely she'd realise that a call from an undercover officer would take precedence."

"I don't think pointing the finger of blame is going to help." Neil cut in, sensing that Stevie was about to defend her friend fiercely and probably say something that would get her into trouble. "Knowing Hannah she's probably blaming herself anyway. Besides, she'd never do anything that would put any of her colleagues, let alone Jo, in danger."

The Welsh Detective quirked an eyebrow, before slipping down in her chair and smirking slightly. After a couple more moments, Neil dismissed the team and they dispersed to carry out the tasks he'd set them. As Stevie attempted to leave, the DI cleared his throat and called her back.

"You know Hannah better than anyone else… how do you think I should handle her?"

The blonde sighed. "Well don't send her home. She won't go without a fight and then she'll probably do something stupid like trying to track them down herself. Just try and keep things normal; let her stay until the end of her shift at six, but then make sure she leaves. Don't stop her coming in tomorrow, because she'll be here anyway."

"How can we possibly keep things normal?" Neil asked, raising his eyebrows. "Check the shift rota; when's Hannah working?"

Stevie moved to the computer in the corner of the room and brought up the rotas on the network. She stepped aside so that Neil could put his password in to allow her access to the shift information. Then she sighed. "She's in ten 'til eight tomorrow and then she's got three days off."

"Good, so she'll…" He paused. "She won't stay away, will she?"

"No." The Detective Sergeant agreed. "We'll just have to work round Hannah and keep an eye on her. We have to make sure she doesn't lose it, because if she does there are only two people who can bring her back… and one of them is missing."

Neil looked as though he was dreading the answer to his next question. "And the other person?"

"Samantha Nixon."

x-x

Ellie was one of the last people to find out about Jo and Chesca's disappearance. She had just come back from patrolling the Jasmine Allen Estate with Mel towards the end of her first shift, when Stevie caught her arm and pulled her aside to break the news. The young woman's first thought was how her mother was coping. When the blonde admitted that she was blaming herself, before briefly telling her why, Ellie exhaled sharply.

"Ellie, you need to make sure she's alright." Stevie said firmly. "I know this is gonna hit you and the kids hard, not to mention Jo's parents, but your Mum is really gonna struggle. Between us we need to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't do anything stupid."

"I'm on a double shift… I'll have to switch…"

Stevie shook her head. "No, I'll go over. I was gonna go round for a girls' night tonight anyway. It's better if you keep yourself busy and, if anything happens, you'll be here to let us know." Seeing the sense in the older woman's words, Ellie nodded. "If I pick up a takeaway on the way over is there anything particular I should get?"

"Pizza's always good… or chips. We're not really fussy in our family; as long as it's edible, we'll eat it." Her breathing hitched as she finally grasped the full reality of what the blonde Detective Sergeant had been saying. "If anything happens to Jo… it'll destroy Mum. She's not as strong as she makes out. I'm scared she'll do something stupid."

"Aren't we all?" Stevie sighed.

She gave the red-head a quick hug, before heading out of the station. Alone in her car, the blonde glanced in the mirror and frowned at the tears that were welling up in her eyes. Getting upset wouldn't help anyone.

x-x

"Right, I couldn't decide, so I brought pizza _and_ chips." Stevie announced as soon as Hannah opened the front door a while later. The red-head looked far from her usual self, dressed in baggy jogging bottoms and a hoody that seemed to be a couple of sizes too big. Her face was completely make-up free for once and her hair was scraped back messily. She stood aside to let her friend in, closing the door firmly behind her. "I hope your lot are hungry 'cos I've got enough to feed an army!"

"Jo? Oh…" Jen quickly swapped the look of disappointment on her face for a warm smile. "Hi, Stevie. Any idea when Jo'll be back? She said she'd come to my dance class with me so I could practice driving. I've got to leave in twenty minutes if I'm walking."

Stevie turned to face Hannah quickly, frowning as the red-head refused to meet her gaze and walked away along the hall. She smiled at Jen, who rolled her eyes and stamped upstairs muttering about Hannah being an emotionless alcoholic, before following her friend into the kitchen and pushing the door closed. Depositing the pizza boxes and plastic bag containing several large portions of chips on the table, she rounded on the woman who was pouring wine into a large mug.

"Classy…"

"Yeah, well, I need a drink." Hannah muttered, replacing the bottle on the counter and taking a long swig.

"It's not your first, I'm guessing? Maybe Jen's right about you drinking too much…" Stevie sighed, arching an eyebrow as she eyed the now empty wine bottle. As her gaze fell on another empty bottle beside the food waste bin, she sighed. "Why haven't you told them about Jo?"

Hannah shook her head and took a long gulp of wine before speaking. "You weren't at Sun Hill during the Larry Franks case, were you? Jo was abducted by the Crime Scene Photographer who murdered that model… Cindy Statham?"

"I remember that case…" The blonde muttered. "I read about it in the papers… I never realised you worked on it."

"I didn't; it was Jo. But she was nearly killed, Stevie. She was working late reviewing evidence. Then she rang me to say she was on her way home, but she never arrived and we realised she'd been taken. I told the kids she was missing in the morning and then we found her in the afternoon with a gun pointed at her head. If I'd just waited a bit longer before telling them…" She trailed off, draining the rest of her wine in one go. "Theo was seven and didn't sleep for two weeks. Every time we went to work they were scared we wouldn't come home. It's not fair on them… but neither of us could ever give it up. We know what we've signed up for, we're perfectly aware of what can happen and we live with that. Until we know what's going on I don't want to put them through all that again. Max has got his AS Levels and Jen's doing her GCSEs… they don't need this…"

"So… what? You're just gonna… what? Tell them she's on holiday? They need to know, Han."

"No… I dunno what I'm gonna do. I can't… I can't think…"

As Stevie watched, the red-head burst into tears and slumped to the floor, sliding down the cabinets until she ended up in a crumpled heap. Hannah hugged her knees to her chest and buried her head in her arms, conscious of trying to muffle the sound of her sobbing so the children wouldn't hear. Sighing, the blonde knelt beside her, pulling her friend into her arms and stroking her hair soothingly.

"Seriously, have you got any idea when Jo'll be–"

With a sniff, Hannah rubbed her eyes roughly and hauled herself to her feet. "No, sweetheart, I have no idea…" She trailed off, biting her lip hard to stop herself bursting into tears. She turned away and busied herself with a pile of papers on the surface behind her.

"Hannah… what's going on?" Jen demanded.

"Go and get Max and Theo; I need to talk to you." The woman breathed, closing her eyes and clutching the edge of the kitchen counter.

"Ab– about Jo? What's happened? Where is she?"

"Just go and get them." Hannah snapped. As the teenager almost ran from the room, the detective turned to her friend. "You're right… I can't act normally around them… they're going to know something's wrong. And when Jo doesn't come home…"

Stevie smiled weakly, reaching out to squeeze her arm. "D'you want me to come in with you?"

"No… can you look after the little ones for a minute. They won't understand."

As the blonde nodded, Hannah took a deep breath and went into the living room to try to explain what was going on. She didn't have a clue how she was going to reassure them that everything would be alright, because she didn't totally believe it herself. She also knew that she'd have to admit that it was her fault that Jo was missing. As she closed the door behind her, she felt sick.


	15. Chapter 15

Ellie had gone straight round to her mother's house when her shift finished at seven the next morning. Letting herself in, she wasn't surprised to see the older red-head pacing around the living room biting her nails. Clearly Hannah had been awake all night, hoping for news of her girlfriend's whereabouts. As soon as she set eyes on her oldest daughter, the woman burst into tears.

Handing her a steaming mug of coffee, Ellie told her that there was no news yet, but Uniform and CID had been working on the case all night. She encouraged her mother to act as normally as she could manage; getting the kids up and off to school before heading into the station for her shift. There was no point trying to convince her not to go in, despite her severe lack of sleep. Watching Hannah leaving with Theo and Molly, the young PC closed her eyes tightly and leant against the wall. She hadn't let herself feel anything during her shift, knowing that she would need her wits about her if she was going to be any use at all.

Now, though, she couldn't hold back the tears. Pulling out her mobile she dialled Abi's number and waited for the call to connect. "Abs… can you come over? I don't want to be on my own… Jo's disappeared."

x-x

When Hannah's mobile rang for the fifth time in fewer minutes, she realised that ignoring it wasn't an option anymore. She picked it up and stared at the screen for a moment, even though it was displaying the same name as it had been each time it had rung, before accepting the call and holding it to her ear.

"What d'you want, Sam?"

"Oi!" The familiar husky tones of Samantha Nixon reached her ears and the red-head had to fight back tears again. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I haven't exactly been thinking straight."

"No, I know."

"How did you find out?"

"Ellie phoned Abigail and asked her to go round. She told her Jo had disappeared."

Hannah nodded, forgetting that her friend couldn't see the movement. "It's my fault, Sam. I suggested Neil put officers in undercover and I didn't answer my phone. If anything happens…"

"Hey! Stop being silly." Sam demanded. "Neil wouldn't have gone ahead and let them go undercover if he didn't agree it was the best thing to do. Answering your phone wouldn't have changed anything, would it? What could you have done? The risks we take are all part of the job. We know what we're signing up for and we deal with the consequences of our actions. You cannot blame yourself."

"But I am. I do blame myself."

"Right… what are you working on at the moment?"

The Detective Sergeant frowned and glanced at the files in front of her. "I've got a million reports to go through."

"Forget that; we're having lunch."

"Sam, I can't…"

"Why not? Because Jo's missing so you have to punish yourself?"

"Sam…" Hannah sighed and rubbed her eyes tiredly. "I can't go off for lunch when anything could be happening to her."

"I'm not suggesting we get pissed, love. I bet you haven't slept or eaten since you realised something had happened? And I bet the only things you've drunk are alcohol and then disgustingly strong black coffee to cure the inevitable hangover?"

"You know me so well…" The younger woman muttered sarcastically.

Sam chuckled. "That's sorted, then. I'll come and pick you up." She paused, sensing that Hannah was about to argue again. "Don't make excuses, I'm on my way."

Knowing that there was no point arguing with the woman when she made up her mind about something, Hannah sighed and hung up the call. She poked her head around Neil's office door and informed him that she was taking her lunch break early. He nodded weakly and she made him promise to phone her if there were any developments.

Although she was loathed to admit it, the detective had to admit that lunch with Sam had done her good. The petite blonde talked a lot of sense and she knew what it was like for a loved one to be abducted. She rarely mentioned Abi's disappearance several years before, preferring to try and forget it had ever happened, but seeing the state Hannah was in the blonde decided to open up. Her honesty allowed the red-head to see how much her friend cared and she allowed herself to believe that she wasn't so alone.

As Sam dropped her back at the station an hour or so later, she gave her a tight hug and promised that they would come round that evening. Hannah was suddenly aware of how much she didn't want to be on her own. Having Sam and her family around would go some way to distracting them from the fact that they had no idea where Jo was or what might be happening to her.

Walking into CID, Hannah felt her shoulders being grasped by Stevie as the blonde steered her back out the way she'd just come. They entered the briefing room with Mickey and the two young trainees as the woman explained that the Superintendent had called a meeting for the whole station; CID and Uniform. They assumed it must be something to do with the Travel Agents' case, but weren't sure what. Taking seats in a row near the back of the room, the detectives settled themselves ready to hear whatever was going to be said.

Once the room had filled up with officers Jack strode to the front, flanked by Smithy and Neil. He fixed them all with a sombre look and suddenly Hannah knew that they were about to receive bad news. She swallowed quickly, a lump rising in her throat and a heavy feeling settling in her stomach. Immediately she began mentally punishing herself for going out for lunch with Sam while Jo was missing.

"What I have to tell you this afternoon will come as a shock I'm sure." Jack started, wringing his hands and looking around at the faces in front of him. "In the early hours of this morning, a body was found on waste ground about two miles from the Travel Agents where three of our officers were undercover."

Hannah tensed. She knew what was coming. At once she thought the worst. It took her a moment or two to realise that, if the body belonged to Jo, surely Jack would have told her in private. Surely he thought enough of her to give her that courtesy. Clinging onto that shred of hope, she waited for him to speak again.

"Forensics have confirmed that the body belongs to PC Monroe… Chesca." He paused as several gasps ran around the room. Hannah almost struggled for breath, caught between relief that it wasn't Jo, guilt at her relief and more guilt as she still believed it was her fault. "Her family have been informed. Although she wasn't here very long, I'm sure we'll miss her around the station. To show our respects we'll be passing round a collection to buy a wreath for the funeral."

Before he'd finished speaking, Hannah pushed her chair back and rushed out of the room. She headed straight for the women's toilets and shut herself in a cubical, locking the door and sitting down with her head in her hands. A moment later the main door opened and footsteps entered the room. With shaky hands, the detective reached forward and unlocked the door at the sound of Stevie's voice.

"Han… you heard what the Guv said, right? It's not Jo."

Sniffing, the red-head nodded. "I know, Stevie. But it's my fault she's dead. And… they've already killed Chesca… what if… what if we just haven't found Jo yet?"

"Do you think she's dead?" Stevie asked carefully. She crouched in front of her friend and squeezed her hands. "Do you believe Jo's gone?"

There was a long pause. "No." Hannah admitted at last. "Jo once told me that she could deal with the fact that I can't help putting myself in dangerous situations because she was sure that if anything ever happened to me she'd know. I think she was right. I don't feel like… I'm sure she's alive."

"Then you hang onto that thought, babe." Stevie urged. "Hang onto that thought and we'll find her."

* * *

_**A/N: Thank you so much for reading guys and massive thank yous to Anastasia Dove and GirlonaBridge for your reviews! You are too lovely!**_

_**If any of you other wonderful people fancy leaving a review too I would be so happy! :D**_


	16. Chapter 16

The mood in the station was, understandably, subdued after the Superintendent's announcement. Hannah flitted between anger, depression and feeling nothing at all. When her shift finished that evening, the red-head headed home psyching herself up to spend the next three days with her family, convincing them that everything would be alright. Hannah had been forced to promise that she wouldn't come back into the station until her shift started on Monday, but she severely doubted whether she'd be able to stick to that; especially if there was any news about the case or Jo's whereabouts.

As she'd promised, Sam's car was on the drive as Hannah pulled up and the detective walked into a full house. Ordinarily the red-head would have loved having so many people around. That evening, however, the atmosphere made her want to run away and hide. Ellie came down stairs as her mother closed the front door, evidently having put Caitlin and Dylan to bed. Meeting her mother's eyes, she threw herself into Hannah's arms and buried her head in her shoulder.

"Come on, sweetheart." Hannah murmured, stroking her hair and dropping kisses onto the side of her head. "We have to stay positive for the kids."

"But… but… Chesca…"

"I know, I know." Her mother murmured soothingly. "But that doesn't mean anything has happened to Jo. You know what she's like; we should be more worried for the health of whoever's taken her. Jo won't give up on life when she's got so much to look forward to. Besides, I'll kill her if she leaves us."

After a couple of moments the young woman sniffed and nodded, rubbing her eyes. "Meg and Henry are here and Sam, Phil, Abi and Harry."

"OK… I'll be in now." Hannah assured her, smiling weakly.

Ellie returned her smile and went into the living room, pulling the door closed behind her. Alone in the hall, Hannah slumped down to sit on the stairs and put her head in her hands. Whatever she had just said to Ellie, it was going to take more than that to make her feel any less terrified. She had somehow managed to reassure her daughter that everything was going to be alright, but it would take more than that to convince her.

The door opened and Sam emerged, moving to sit beside her friend on the stairs. She wrapped an arm around Hannah's shoulders and stroked her hair gently as the red-head nestled her head into the crook of Sam's neck. She sighed deeply as the tell-tale shaking of the younger woman alerted her to the fact she was crying again.

"You can't let the kids see you're scared." She murmured quietly. "Cry in front of me, let me see how scared you are, but don't show them."

"Stuff like this has happened before… you know what Jo's like when she gets involved in a case… she doesn't think about her safety. You and I are the same… I can't blame her. But this time… I just have a really bad feeling."

Sam frowned slightly. "What d'you mean?"

"I don't know… usually I'm worried about Jo, but I know she can handle herself. I know she feels the same about me. But… they killed Chesca less than twenty-four hours after they took them. Why? What if they've already killed Jo too?"

"Don't, Hannah. Just don't." Sam ordered harshly, not wanting to think about the possibility of her best friend being dead.

"But what if they have, Sam?" She persisted, sitting up straight and fixing the blonde with tear-filled eyes. "I can't imagine her not being around. I can't imagine how I can just carry on without her."

"Han…"

"No, I can't. The thought of her leaving me on my own… I won't be able to do it. I won't survive."

Sam remembered the self-destructive spiral her friend had entered when she and Jo split up and instantly knew that Hannah wasn't just being dramatic. "Don't threaten things like that, Hannah. Think about your kids; if, and I mean if, they lose Jo then they're going to need you more than ever. You have to be strong, Hannah."

"I can't!" She admitted. "Before Jo I wouldn't have imagined that I'd feel like that about anyone. I would never have even thought that losing someone would make me consider… but she's everything, Sam. I don't want to live without her…"

"When Jo comes back safe and sound you're going to wish we'd never had this conversation." Sam told her, knowing that there was nothing she could say at the moment to stop Hannah feeling the way she did.

"But is she coming back, Sam?" The red-head asked.

When the older woman wasn't able to reply at once, Hannah stood up and made her way upstairs, saying she was going to bed. Sam closed her eyes tightly and exhaled deeply. One of her best friends was missing and the other had almost admitted that she would try to kill herself if the worst happened. Telling anyone what Hannah had said wasn't really an option; Ellie would get angry, Abi would panic, Phil would go into over-protective mode and everyone else would probably suffocate her in an attempt to make sure she was alright. All Sam could hope was that it didn't get to a point where she had to deal with the consequences.

Over the next couple of days Sam couldn't bring herself to admit the truth about why she was so reluctant to leave Hannah on her own. If any of the others were concerned about the reasons behind her protective behaviour they didn't comment on it. Stevie popped in several times with any new information trying to keep them updated, but also to try and prevent Hannah going into work herself.

Jo's parents had spent most of their time at the house as well. The news that their daughter had disappeared wasn't something they'd never heard before, but it never got any easier. Being around the rest of the family seemed to make Meg and Henry think more positively, using the same tactics as Hannah was to stay positive. They threw themselves into looking after their adoptive grandchildren and great-grandson and keeping them occupied.

But Hannah knew the statistics. She knew that the more time that passed without any sight or sound of Jo the more unlikely it was that they would find her alive. Added to the fact that they'd already discovered Chesca's body her optimism was fading fast. She knew that she'd scared Sam with her talk about what would happen if Jo didn't come home, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Instead she retreated into herself and concentrated on appearing to be staying positive for the children's sakes.

As the phone rang early on Sunday afternoon, the red-headed detective jumped, tipping over her glass of wine. She swore as the liquid spread quickly over the arm of the sofa and dripped onto the carpet. Ellie picked the phone up and held it to her ear, listening as the person on the other end of the phone spoke and trying to block out her mother's angry muttering as she dabbed at the growing stain. She glanced towards the older woman and caught her attention, before telling whoever was on the other end of the line that they were on their way.

"Who was that?" Hannah asked with a sigh.

"Sergeant Stone. Apparently there's been a development and the Super wants to see you."

Hannah nodded, shivering slightly as she wondered what it could mean. Sam stood up at once. Assuring her friend and her daughter that she would be fine on her own, telling them to stay and help Meg clear up after Sunday lunch, Hannah left the house and headed into the station. If Jack was going to give her the news she was dreading, then she wanted to be on her own to receive it. That way, if it was bad news, she could fix her mask back in place and support her family while she tried to come to terms with things.

Making her way through the station and keeping her head down so that she wouldn't be forced to meet anyone's eyes Hannah knocked on the Superintendent's door and waited for him to call her in. Jack rose as she entered, motioning for her to take the seat opposite his desk. Realising that her hands were shaking, she clenched them in her lap and she tried to appear calm. Inside, her stomach was churning threateningly and her breath was refusing to come naturally. She struggled to keep it even, forcing her lungs to work.

"Hannah… there's been a development." Jack told her gently. His eyes were telling her how much he didn't want to be having this conversation, his body language oozing sympathy and compassion.

She swallowed, digging her nails into the palms of her hands. "Guv?"

"Uniform have found a body."


	17. Chapter 17

Hannah immediately went cold and leapt to her feet. Her throat seemed to have completely closed up and she struggled to swallow the bile that had risen at the news that they'd found a body. The knot in her stomach twisted even more and she thought she was about to faint. She gasped for breath, her knees shaking, and decided that sitting down again before she fell down would be a much better option.

"Is it…"

"All we know is that it's an IC1 female, possibly with brown hair. There's quite a lot of damage to the body… too much to recognise… if it is…"

"I need to call Meg and Henry… Jo's parents." The red-head murmured, pulling herself out of her seat. "They're at ours with Sam and Phil and the kids…"

"Hannah… there's no point worrying them unnecessarily. The body might be completely unconnected to the case. Wait until we know more before involving your family."

"But if it is her… if it's Jo… how am I going to… what am I…?" She raised a hand to her mouth and rushed from the Superintendent's office, taking quick, shallow breaths.

She ignored the questioning gazes and calls of her colleagues that she passed in the corridor and slammed through the door to the women's toilets as she had done the last time she'd heard about the discovery of a body. Leaning heavily against the sinks, Hannah tried to calm her breathing, clutching at the surface for support. She rushed into a cubical as the meagre contents of her stomach forced itself up her throat. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, the detective staggered back to the sinks, rinsing her mouth and splashing water over her face.

Gazing at her reflection, she tried to convince herself that the body wouldn't be Jo's. She told herself that it was some other poor woman that had died. The thought of carrying on without her girlfriend was too much to consider. Hannah replayed the last time she'd seen her over and over in her head. A small smile twisted her lips as she remembered the cheeky grin Jo had shot her as she left the house on Wednesday morning, winking and smacking her on the bum as she passed.

"Han?" Stevie's soft call caused the smile to drop from her face as she remembered what was going on. "Babe, you in here?"

"Yeah… yeah." She took a deep breath and composed herself, meeting her friend's eyes in the mirror. "I need to see the body."

"Hannah, no."

"Stevie, yes."

The blonde exhaled sharply. "What good is that going to do? If… If it is…" She took a breath. "If it is Jo, then we'll find out soon enough. And if it isn't Jo–"

"Then we can keep looking for her."

"You said you'd know." Stevie reminded her. "You told me that you thought you'd know if something happened to Jo. Well? Do you feel like she's dead?"

There was silence as Hannah thought about it. She looked at her friend with tear-filled eyes. "I don't know."

Stevie gazed back at her, stunned by the admission. She had been hoping Hannah would repeat the answer she'd given her the last time she'd asked the question. "Well I do." She set her face in a determined expression and nodded. "I know that Jo's out there somewhere, holding on because she knows you won't give up on her."

"You know what?" Hannah thought for a moment and then nodded. "You're right. Crying isn't going to help us find Jo." She took a deep breath and then folded her arms. "What's the latest? Have you spoken to what's her name… Mandy Reynolds?"

"We've got her in custody. She claims to not know anything about Jo and Chesca's disappearance, but she's admitted knowing about the drugs that are being brought into the country through the Travel Agents and she's given us another name."

"What name?"

"Tommy Wilshaw."

"Wilshaw?" Hannah shook her head. "Looks like we were right then, love. There was something we were missing."

Stevie nodded and led the way out of the toilets. "Uniform went round to Wilshaw's house and found the wife and children, but no sign of him. Mrs Wilshaw said her husband's gone back to Cardiff on business, so DI Kelton's gone back up to see if they can track him down. So far there's no sign, but we're working on it."

"Did Mandy Reynolds say anything about the abductions at all?" Hannah asked as they pushed through the double doors into CID.

"No, she's sticking to her story that she doesn't know anything about it. According to her, the last time she saw Jo and Chesca was when they left the shop on Tuesday."

"That's not true…" Hannah said quickly. She pulled out her mobile and searched through the messages from Jo. "Jo text me on Wednesday morning saying that the boss was wearing a ridiculously short skirt… I didn't think about it before, but she obviously wasn't talking about the old guy and Reynolds was standing in as the manager wasn't she? She must have seen them on Wednesday morning, so she's lying."

"Hold that thought." The blonde ordered, knocking on the DI's office door. "Guv?"

He beckoned them inside, looking at Hannah curiously. "What are you doing here? You're not on shift until tomorrow."

"Yeah… the Super called me in. I'm assuming you've heard about the body they've found?"

Neil nodded. "Mmm… so, what have you got for me, DS Moss?"

"Actually, it's Hannah… we've realised that Mandy Reynolds has been lying to us. She claimed she hadn't seen Jo and Chesca since Tuesday, right? Well according to a message Jo sent Hannah on Wednesday, that's not true."

"OK… tell Smithy and Callum that she's lying and get them to try and get something out of her." The DI told the blonde with a nod. As both women turned to leave, he held up a hand. "Hannah, a minute?"

"Guv?"

"You need to go home." He ordered. "We need to concentrate on finding Jo. We can't worry about you acting recklessly as well."

She smiled. "It sounds like we're both agreed on that. I promise you, Guv, that I am completely focused on this case. I'll treat it like any other misper case. Sitting at home trying to pretend that nothing's wrong is driving me mad. Every night when I tuck the kids in they ask if Jo'll be back when they wake up and I don't know what to tell them. Sitting around waiting for something to happen isn't going to make sure she gets home."

Looking as though he was fighting against his better judgement, the Detective Inspector nodded and assigned her to a theft case that had just been called in. Slightly annoyed that he was trying to keep her away from the Travel Agents' case, Hannah clenched her jaw and nodded. She settled herself at the desk to read over the case notes and familiarise herself with things, before heading down to find Kirsty in the canteen.

Ignoring the sympathetic stares of everyone around her, Hannah leant over the blonde and informed her that she'd taken over the Chambers' theft case and needed her help. Kirsty nodded at once and followed her from the canteen. They headed off to review the CCTV footage from the camera round the corner from the house that had been broken into.

They spotted the same car on the video several times in ten minutes and decided to go and ask Roger, who'd been the first at the scene, whether Mr and Mrs Chambers had mentioned it. There was nothing in their statements, but it seemed unlikely they wouldn't have spotted the car if they had been in the front garden as they claimed. In their search for the officer, they headed through custody. Hannah paused as she saw Callum escorting a woman into an interview room.

"Was that Mandy Reynolds?" She asked the Custody Sergeant quickly. When he nodded, she glanced back to the closed door.

"Sarge?" Kirsty prompted her gently.

Hannah nodded and smiled, heading through the doors and continuing their search for PC Valentine. Roger filled them in on everything they needed to know, confirming that the victims hadn't mentioned the car from the CCTV. Instantly flagging that fact up as suspicious, Hannah and Kirsty headed out of the station to question the victims further and discovered that they were being very cagey about the car; especially when Hannah informed them it was registered to a Tony Rayers. Further questioning revealed that Tony Rayers was the brother of Mrs Chambers' ex-husband.

With that new information, the two officers went back to the station to run Tony Rayers through CRIMINT. Finding out that he had form for theft and burglary, the women headed off to pick him up and take him into the station for questioning. By the time they were heading back to Sun Hill, Mr Rayers had been cautioned for resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.


	18. Chapter 18

When Tony Rayers was being shown to a cell in the custody suite, Hannah prodded at her left cheekbone with a wince. Kirsty grinned at her, receiving a shove in the shoulder and a roll of the Detective Sergeant's eyes.

"You're getting too old for this, Sarge." The blonde joked.

Hannah narrowed her eyes and shoved Kirsty again. "Really? You're exactly the same age as me, PC Knight!"

"Yeah, but apparently I've got better reflexes." She replied with a shrug, moving aside as Smithy appeared with a suspect that needed booking in. The two women went to lean against the wall opposite, wasting time before getting in touch with a duty brief so they could interview Rayers. They both watched as a woman was brought out of the cells and told to wait while Neil checked something at the desk. "I mean, I ducked and you didn't."

"Thanks for warning me, by the way."

Kirsty laughed. "I think you should get the FME to check you over, Han; it was a pretty nasty crack."

"I've had worse." Hannah informed her with a shrug. "Apparently I've got the type of face people like to punch."

"Sarge, he could have fractured your cheekbone."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…"

"DS McKay." DI Manson walked towards the woman and frowned at her. He stared pointedly at her cheek. "Go to the FME and get that looked at. Otherwise I'll be forced to think that this is an example of you acting recklessly and, after our conversation earlier, I will send you home."

She sighed and glanced over his shoulder at the woman who was waiting for him. "Fine. Is that… has she said anything else about Jo?"

Neil raised an eyebrow and folded his arms. "Hannah."

"Alright, Guv. Come on, Kirst… We should track down the brief… it'll be a while before he gets his arse over here anyway. We'll have time for a coffee, at least."

The blonde PC nodded as Hannah made her way back to the desk and picked up the phone, shooting Callum a cheeky grin as she did so. He rolled his eyes, but let her use it. Once she had ordered the duty brief to get to Sun Hill as soon as possible, giving him a brief overview of the case and their suspect, Callum reminded her that she wasn't supposed to use that phone. Hannah just leant on the desk and patted his cheek with a grin.

"Right, Knight, coffee."

"On you?" Kirsty asked with a laugh.

Hannah rolled her eyes. "I suppose so."

They made their way to the canteen and the Detective Sergeant bought the drinks while Kirsty went to sit at a table with Mel and Leon. After a couple of minutes, Hannah joined them, placing a mug of coffee in front of the blonde PC and taking a large gulp from hers. She tried her best to ignore the sly, sympathetic looks that the officers were sending at her, asking what they were working on.

She tried her best to keep her attention focused on them, but her mind kept wandering back to the woman currently being questioned by the DI. A picture of Jo's body, too badly damaged to be identified, kept infiltrating her mind. She squeezed her eyes closed, but it made no difference; if anything it was far worse.

"Hannah?" The red-head jumped as Kirsty touched her arm, looking concerned. "You alright?"

"Yeah, sorry. I was a million miles away."

"I noticed." The PC replied, smiling. "Right, the duty brief's arrived earlier than expected; apparently your kick up the bum worked better than you thought it would. He's in with Rayers now, so we can get down there and interview him whenever you're ready."

Hannah blinked at her in surprise. "When did you find all this out?"

"When you were a million miles away." Kirsty told her with a grin. She drained the coffee cup quickly. "Ready, then?"

Making their way back towards custody, Hannah filled in the forms and waited for Callum to fetch Rayers from the cells. As they led him towards one of the interview rooms, they passed Neil leading Mandy Reynolds back towards the desk. He paused, signalling for Ollie to take over and pulled Hannah aside.

Lowering his voice, he glanced towards where the trainee was booking the woman back into the cell. "She knows who you are."

"Sorry, Guv?"

"Mandy Reynolds knows that you're Jo's partner. Apparently she overheard a conversation between Jo and Chesca and you were mentioned. She recognised your name earlier and asked about you in the interview."

Breathing in sharply, the detective leant against the wall and thought for a moment. "Did she say what the conversation was about?"

"You know I can't discuss it with you." Neil reminded her seriously. "I just wanted you to know."

Tears sprang to her eyes and she shook her head. "Guv, please. I know I promised to stay detached, but Jo might be dead. That conversation might be the reason that all this happened. Chesca's death might be a direct result of whatever was said then." Neil didn't seem as though he was intending to say anything else. "What did she overhear? Was it an argument? Were they stupid enough to discuss the case at the Travel Agents? Was it just a general chat?"

"Mandy said it was an argument."

"An argument? About what?"

"Hannah! Stop!" The DI ordered firmly. "That's all you're getting. Now you can either get your mind back on your job and go and interview your suspect with PC Knight or you can go home. It's your choice. And have you been to the FME yet?"

With a sigh of resignation, avoiding admitting that she hadn't yet followed orders and been to get her injury checked out, the Detective Sergeant nodded and opened the door of the interview room Kirsty had disappeared into with Rayers. She settled herself beside the PC and started the interview. She largely allowed her colleague to lead the questioning, only chipping in every now and then when something occurred to her. Towards the end of the interview, the red-head spotted a chink in the man's armour and went for it.

As they left Rayers and the duty brief at the custody desk while Callum dealt with the paperwork after the man's arrest on the theft charge, Kirsty turned to the DS and sighed. "Hannah…"

"What?"

"I honestly thought you were going to hit Rayers at the end… I think he and the brief thought you were too."

"Of course I wasn't going to hit him." The red-haired detective assured her, rolling her eyes and pushing through the double doors to the corridor leading back to CID. "I could tell he was hiding something so I pushed it. OK, maybe I could have been a bit more tactful, but I got the confession. In the end that's all that matters, right?"

Kirsty didn't look as though she entirely agreed, but she smiled as they parted outside CID. Hannah made her way straight to the DI's office and knocked on the door.

"He's not in." Rob called from his desk, seeing the Detective Sergeant waiting to be called inside. "He went out with Ollie about twenty minutes ago."

"Any idea when he'll be back?"

"Nope, sorry Sarge."

Nodding, Hannah decided that she might as well go and get the FME to assess the damage to her cheek. At least then she'd be able to look Neil in the face and tell him that she'd had it seen to. It turned out that Kirsty's doom and gloom prediction was accurate and the FME confirmed that her cheek was fractured. She also said that Hannah would have a black eye by the morning. With a sigh, the detective left the office and headed back to CID.

Taking one look at her, Neil informed her that he wasn't going to speak to her until tomorrow and she might as well go home. Clenching her jaw and knowing that he was completely serious, Hannah gathered up her things. She only stopped for a moment to assure him that she had followed orders and been to the FME.


	19. Chapter 19

Hannah's shift on Monday went past slowly. With her house still full of people – with the children on half term, Jo's parents had offered to stay and keep an eye on things – Hannah was only too happy to escape to the familiar stress of the office. She caught up with Kirsty and the two women completed the paperwork from the theft case they'd dealt with the evening before, before retreating to CID and starting to tackle the mountain of reports she had yet to complete.

She had just dropped the third completed file onto the pile on her left with a satisfied sigh, when her mobile started ringing. Glad of the distraction, she picked it up and glanced at the screen. Hannah couldn't help her heart sinking slightly as she saw 'home' written on the display.

"Hi, what's happened?" She asked instantly.

Meg chuckled. "Nothing's happened, Hannah, love. Why would you automatically assume that?"

"Because I know our family too well."

The older woman chuckled again. Then she sighed and when she spoke again her voice trembled slightly. "There was a call from… the Olsen Clinic. I said you'd ring them back."

"Of course." Hannah replied, closing her eyes and resting her forehead on her hand. It was obvious why Meg seemed to be fighting back tears; the Clinic would have asked to speak to Jo. "I'll phone them now."

"Is this about…?"

"Jo having a baby? Yeah… it's probably just a check-up or something. I'll let you know, anyway."

Sensing that the younger woman didn't want to talk anymore, but was too polite to end the phone call, Meg did it for her. Hannah, realising that she didn't have the number for the clinic, used the internet to search for it before using her desk phone to make the call.

"Hello, Olsen Clinic, Jane speaking."

"Jane, hi, it's Hannah McKay." The detective informed her quickly, leaning forward and hunching over her desk. It was almost as though she was creating a protective cocoon for herself while she made the call.

"Hello, Hannah. We were hoping to speak to Jo."

The red-head winced. "That's going to be a problem, I'm afraid. She's going to be unavailable for a while."

"Working?" The nurse asked with a small chuckle. She was used to rearranging and cancelling appointments for the couple due to their work commitments.

"Something like that." Hannah agreed. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

Jane sighed. "It's not strictly professional, but seeing as I know you and I know that it could be weeks before I get to speak to Jo," Hannah winced again at her words, the reality that she might never get to speak to Jo hitting her, "I suppose it's better if I tell you."

"Tell me what?"

"The last time Jo came in we did a blood test. Congratulations, she's pregnant."

Hannah almost dropped the phone. She rested her forehead against her hand again, tears springing to her eyes. Slowly she rubbed her face, trying to remove all trace of tears. Jane was talking, but the detective couldn't register what she was saying. Under other circumstances she would have been delighted at the news, knowing how much Jo wanted to have a baby. But now the thought terrified her.

"Hannah? Are you there?"

"Yes!" The woman answered at once, suddenly realising that she was still on the phone. "Sorry. How… how far…?"

"Fourteen weeks."

"Four… fourteen weeks?!" Her mouth dropped open. Hannah had assumed she would be a couple of weeks at the most. Then she wondered how she could possibly have missed the symptoms for so long.

"Apparently Jo had an inkling she was pregnant a couple of weeks ago, but didn't want to get her hopes up until it was confirmed."

"Sounds like Jo…" Hannah muttered. She sighed. "I'll get her to ring you as soon as possible. Thanks for letting me know; I appreciate it."

Hanging up, the woman made her way out of CID in a daze. She had no idea where she was going or what she was doing. If the body that had been discovered did belong to Jo, then Hannah hadn't just lost her partner, she'd lost their baby as well. Determination settling over her, the red-headed detective stalked towards the Superintendent's office and banged on the door. She didn't wait to be called in, pushing the door so violently that it bounced off the wall with a crash.

The Superintendent looked up with surprise, DI Manson and Inspector Smith turning round to see who had caused the bang from their seats in front of the desk. Seeing the wild, haunted expression on the Detective Sergeant's face, Jack signalled for Neil and Smithy to leave. He motioned for Hannah to take a seat in front of his desk, but she shook her head and stood instead, her arms folded across her chest.

"What's happened?" Jack asked quietly.

"I need to see that body, Sir." She told him firmly. It was only her inbuilt sense of rank that caused her to remember his superiority. "I have to."

"Hannah… it's not a good idea. I know you're concerned, but seeing the body won't help at all. The damage is too bad to be able to tell if it's her or not."

She slammed her fist onto the desk. "Concerned?! Jack! I've just found out that–"

"Found out what?" Jack demanded as she stopped abruptly.

It was only then that the woman realised that it wasn't fair for her to tell her boss that Jo was pregnant before her girlfriend knew herself. Then again, the more pessimistic part of her reasoned, Jo might never find out. "Jo's pregnant, Sir. Fourteen weeks. The clinic just told me." When Jack looked shell-shocked, Hannah sank into the chair he had signalled for her to take moments before. "Don't tell anyone, Jack… Jo doesn't even know yet; not for sure."

"I still don't think that seeing the body will help." The Superintendent told her a couple of moments later. Seeing the expression on her face, he sighed deeply. "But I'll get photos sent over. That's the best I can do, Hannah."

"Thank you."

She stayed in the seat as he picked up the phone and made the call to have the photos of the body sent up to his office. Hannah chewed her fingernails as she waited. Jack sensed that she didn't want to talk and returned his attention to his paperwork. When the knock on the door came and a PC held out the package containing the evidence he had requested, Hannah took several deep breaths to try and settle her heart rate.

"Are you a hundred per cent sure you want to do this?" Jack checked.

When the detective nodded, he handed her the manila envelope and she ripped it open quickly, pulling out the photos inside. He hadn't been exaggerating when he said the damage was bad. The body was badly burnt and, as a police officer, Hannah had to accept that Jack had been right to say that there was no way she'd be able to identify her girlfriend. This realisation caused her to break down completely.

The Superintendent moved around the desk and pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly. He rubbed her back and muttered soothingly into her hair, doing his best to reassure her. There was nothing he could say, however, that would make her feel any better. He couldn't promise that the body wasn't Jo's and he couldn't promise that everything would be alright. There was absolutely nothing he could do.

As she allowed herself to be held in his firm embrace, Hannah's mind was lurching from one thought to another. She didn't know what she wanted; apart from having Jo back. Part of her wanted to go home and crawl into bed until this whole nightmare was over, but she knew that wasn't an option. The other part of her wanted to bury her head in the sand and carry on with her job like it was any other case, but she knew that wasn't an option either. Hannah needed to stay busy, but she knew that with her mind not completely on the job she was likely to make mistakes.

"What do I do, Jack?" She murmured after a couple of minutes. "How can I carry on?"

"You survive the same way as all those people you've reassured and comforted in the past." He told her firmly. "If you fall apart who's going to be here for Jo when she comes home? Who's going to stay strong for your kids?" Jack paused as Hannah wiped her eyes with her sleeve, smearing mascara down her cheeks in the process. Smiling, he used his handkerchief to gently rub away the marks. "Do you want to go home?"

"I don't know." She admitted quietly.

Understanding what she meant, the Superintendent rubbed her upper arms. "Right, you've got a pile of paperwork on your desk that needs sorting out. You're on eight 'til six this week, aren't you?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Right, well you've got two hours until the end of your shift to finish that up and then I want you to go home. I want to see you here at eight tomorrow morning ready to get on with your job."

"Yes, Sir."

He sent her a final, reassuring smile and the young woman turned to leave his office. "Hannah… try and get some sleep. Jo's not the only one that we're worried about."

She nodded and left. Jack was the closest thing she'd ever had to a father-figure in her life and, although she often disagreed with what he said, his opinions really did matter to her. Making up her mind to do as he said, the woman headed back to CID and worked steadily through her reports until the end of her shift.

* * *

_**A/N: Firstly – thank you for reading/reviewing the last couple of chapters! It really does mean a lot!**_

_**Secondly – I am so sorry for the delay in updating. The Easter holidays have been slightly mental; the first week I went on holiday with my cousins and last week I was at my parents because my Dad was having an operation. They're also having building work done and their internet is down. Two weeks with just my phone internet – which I tried to limit so that my bill didn't give me a heart attack – is apparently almost too much for me to deal with without going mad!**_

_**Thirdly – for various reasons, (massive amounts of self-doubt, writers' block, work, exhaustion, etc.) I feel like my writing abilities are suffering and I was wondering whether you lovely people would do me a favour.**_

_**If you have any prompts for one-shot mini-fics that you'd like me to have a go at, shove them in my ask box on tumblr (there's a link on my profile) and I'll give them a go. I want to keep them on tumblr rather than here because I'm still slightly confused over the fact I've already managed to write and post 41 fics. So yeah, if you tell me what show/characters/ships/scenarios you'd like me to tackle I'll give them a go around struggling with my multi-chapter fics! The only things I won't write are smut (because my attempts are laughably bad) and RPF (because writing about fictional characters is one thing, real people is something else…) and obviously shows I don't watch!**_

_**Thank you so much darlings!**_

_**Bex x**_


	20. Chapter 20

When Hannah arrived at Sun Hill the next morning the station was already a hive of activity. She frowned as Ollie and Rob rushed past her, piles of papers in their hands. No one stopped to explain what was going on, so Hannah settled herself at her desk to check through her files a final time before handing them over to the DI. As she moved the final envelope out of the way, her eyes fell on the information that she'd asked Rob to find for her about her mother from the databases.

Sensing that no one was about to disturb her, the detective unfolded the paper and smoothed it out. Her eyes flicked over the information quickly.

_**Full Name:**__ Sharon Elizabeth Cosgrove (née Hoyland) _

_**DOB:**__ 11/02/1958 (Glasgow, Scotland)_

_**Current Address:**__ 14, Grosvenor Crescent, Dowanhill, Glasgow_

Reassured that she was reading the correct file, Hannah continued to skim through quickly. Her mother's record was impressive, although almost all the entries were for drug-related offences, shoplifting and a couple of cautions for anti-social behaviour. She recognised most of the names listed as associates and could put faces to a lot of them. Hannah almost smiled as she read Nigel Anderson's name, remembering her very first day at Sun Hill when she and Jo had arrested Jinx for importing and distributing drugs. Then she shook her head slightly to distract herself and continued through the information.

The final sheet of paper she had been given was, to Hannah's surprise, a missing persons report from August 1974. She frowned and looked at it carefully. It had been filed by a Sarah and Anthony Hoyland in Glasgow, who had told the investigating officer that their daughter had told them she was going to a friend's house and never turned up there. It had been updated a couple of months later, just after the first entry on Sharon's criminal record, saying that their daughter had been located but had refused to let officers inform her family where she was.

Her grandparents' names were new to Hannah who knew absolutely nothing about her parents' families. Growing up, the detective had just assumed that neither of her parents had families, because they were never mentioned. The new information almost knocked the breath out of her. Hannah was overcome by an overwhelming urge to find out more about her grandparents. She wanted to know whether they were still alive at the very least. Typing their names into the police databases, the detective was slightly surprised to find out that there was no record of them at all; they hadn't even received a parking ticket.

"Sarge?"

Hannah jumped and minimised the search on her computer, before she grabbed all the bits of paper, folding them messily and shoving them into the top drawer of her desk. "Mickey? What's with the formality?"

He came further into the CID office and gestured over his shoulder with his thumb, not answering her question. "We've got a shout and everyone else is busy. You free to come to St Hugh's with me?"

"Course." She agreed, grabbing her jacket and phone and following him quickly through the double doors and down the stairs. "What've we got?"

"There was another stabbing on the Larkmead." He said bluntly, opening the driver's door of one of the pool cars and waiting for her to slide in beside him. "Not life threatening this time, thankfully, but the victim's been taken into St Hugh's for observation."

"Who's our victim?"

"Fifty-four-year-old IC1 female." Mickey told her quickly, not taking his eyes off the road. "A Sharon Cosgrove?"

Hannah turned to face him quickly, her stomach jolting at his words. She assumed that she must have misheard. "Who?"

"Sharon Cosgrove? According to Mel and Roger, who took the shout earlier, she's Scottish and down here visiting her daughter." He shook his head, swinging the car into the hospital car park. "It was just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time by the sounds of it. Hopefully she'll be able to give us a description of her attacker, though."

Not replying, the Detective Sergeant just nodded and opened the car door almost as soon as the car engine cut out. She couldn't explain why, but the thought of her mother being injured had completely thawed the resentment and indifference she had previously felt towards the woman. Maybe it was because she was already facing the prospect of losing Jo, but Hannah suddenly wanted the chance to try and make things right with her mother.

Flashing her warrant card at the nurse on the reception desk, Hannah impatiently followed her through the corridors and onto the ward where her mother was being kept. She spotted the two Uniformed PCs at once and thanked the nurse, dismissing her and making her way hurriedly over to the bay where her mother was.

"DC Webb, DS McKay, Sun Hill." Mickey said with a smile, flashing his warrant card at the blonde in the hospital bed. He blinked as his Sergeant pushed past him and moved to stand beside the woman at the head of the bed.

Hesitantly Hannah reached out and laid a hand on her mother's arm. "Are you OK? What happened?"

Sharon smiled. "I'm alright; had plenty worse in my time, love."

"What were you doing on the Larkmead?"

"I went to pick something up from Tasha Powell… your birthday present, if you must know." The blonde said with a wry smile. She leant over and hunted in her handbag, pulling out a small box, wrapped in brightly coloured paper. "I was going to drop it into the police station for you later; I assumed you wouldn't want me to give it to you in person."

Hannah shook her head. "So you resorted to getting stabbed to get my attention?"

"It's not every day your daughter turns thirty-six."

Suddenly aware of the three officers watching their exchange, just close enough to hear, Hannah cleared her throat and stepped away from the bed. "Umm… so I'm guessing you don't have any idea who your attacker was?"

"No."

"But did you get a good look at them? Could you give us a description?" She continued.

"We've got one, Sarge." Roger informed her quickly, waving his notebook at her.

Hannah nodded. "Good… I'll just go and have a word with the nurse and see how long they want to keep you in. You'll need to come into the station and give a statement and look through some photos to try and identify who stabbed you."

"I'll do it." Mickey said quickly, heading off to attract the attention of the closest nurse.

"So… do you want your present?" Sharon asked softly, looking hard at her daughter and trying to read her expression. Mel and Roger moved away, discreetly giving them some space. "If you don't…"

"No. I mean… I've got a lot going on at the moment. I'd actually forgotten it was my birthday." Her daughter replied with a mirthless laugh. "Thank you."

"What's happened?"

"Jo's been abducted. The PC she was with undercover turned up dead a couple of days ago and we've found another, unidentifiable body." Hannah said in a rush, sitting heavily on the side of the bed.

"Unidentifiable? Surely they can do all that DNA stuff?"

Hannah nodded. "Yeah… we can get dental records and things, but it'll take a while. The body is so badly burnt that there's no chance of getting any forensic evidence from it. I thought I'd know if I saw it, so I got my boss to show me photos. But I have no idea."

"Umm…" Mickey coughed, drawing the two women's attention to him. Hannah stood and folded her arms, nodding at him. "I've spoken to the nurse and they're perfectly happy for Mrs Cosgrove to accompany us to the station now. She said that they're happy that it's just a flesh wound and it'll heal fine."

"Good." Sharon nodded, swinging her legs off the bed and gathering her things. "I've always hated hospitals."

"Can we leave Mrs Cosgrove with you, then?" Mel asked quickly, glancing between the two detectives. "It's just we've had a shout?"

"Course." DC Webb nodded.

The two Uniformed officers smiled and headed quickly away, leaving the CID officers to wait for the woman to gather her things. Sharon followed them out of the ward and through the corridors towards the car park. None of them spoke as they reached the car and Mickey held the back door open for her to get in. On the way to Sun Hill Hannah stared out of the window, the silence only broken by the quiet crackle of the radio every now and then.

* * *

_**A/N: Hey lovelies! Thanks for reading/reviewing! You're awesome! :)**_

_**If you're interested, the mini-fics I've written (so far) from the prompts I was sent can be found on my tumblr page under the Attempts to Destroy Writers' Block link :)**_

_**x**_


	21. Chapter 21

Catching Rob's arm as soon as they stepped into the station, Hannah nodded at him. "TDC Evans, would you mind sitting in with DC Webb while Mrs Cosgrove makes her statement? I've got a couple of things to follow up." She turned to her mother and smiled weakly. "When you've finished your statement and you've been taken through WADS – the Witness Album Display System – get Rob or Mickey to come and fetch me, OK?"

Sharon nodded and followed the two men through the doors. Watching her go, Hannah sighed deeply and turned to head through the doors and up the stairs to CID. She stopped as she saw Beth looking at her carefully.

"You alright, Hannah?" She asked, kindly. Despite everything that was going on, the young PC was the only one who had actually asked her if she was OK. Most of her colleagues had sent her sympathetic looks or pretended that nothing out of the ordinary was going on. Hannah found that she appreciated the question.

"Yeah… well, I'm as alright as can be expected, I suppose." She agreed.

"Was that your Mum?"

The DS nodded. "She was stabbed in the arm on the Larkmead this morning and she's come to make a statement. I don't know whether it's the prospect of losing Jo, or whether I'm just too tired to argue anymore, but I've had enough fighting. I'm gonna talk to her properly and find out what she has to say."

"Sounds like a good idea." The young PC agreed with a smile.

"Listen, Beth, why was everyone running around like idiots earlier?"

"There was a sighting of a woman matching Jo's description with a man matching Wilshaw's down near the docks." Beth informed her without thinking. As she realised what she'd said and who she was talking to, she glanced up quickly. "Oh… but…"

"Was it her?" Hannah demanded. "No… surely someone would have told me if it was?"

Picking up the receiver of the SRO's phone on the desk, the PC dialled a number and instructed DS Moss to come down to the reception. When the red-head looked at her questioningly, Beth smiled. "Stevie was one of the officers who went down to the Docks; she'll probably be able to tell you what's going on."

As the door by the desk opened and the blonde DS appeared, she sighed and tried to retreat quickly. Hannah grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the interview room on the opposite side of the reception area, blocking the door, so Stevie couldn't escape without filling her in on the latest developments.

"Hannah…"

"What? What's been going on this morning? Have you found something?"

Stevie sighed deeply. "Look, Han… We got some information from the appeal the Super made and we followed it up. We went down to the docks and we found nothing." When Hannah's face fell, she shook her head. "It's not bad news, necessarily. We've still got a new lead to follow up."

"What lead?"

DS Moss hesitated and then exhaled sharply again. "The car the information mentioned seeing at the docks; a metallic green–"

"Renault Megane Coupe?" Hannah finished for her.

"How did you know that?"

"It's Tommy Wilshaw's car." The red-head said with a grin, optimism flooding through her. "So Tommy Wilshaw and Jo were spotted at the docks… how long ago?"

"The call came in just before eight." Stevie told her with a frown. "Han, don't get your hopes up, alright? It might be a long shot."

"But Jo might be alive. There might have been a sighting of her… just over three and a half hours ago. Have you gathered CCTV from round the docks? Are Uniform doing door-to-doors in the area?"

Stevie nodded, perching on the table and folding her arms. "Of course they are. Hannah, we know how to handle this situation. You've been put on another case, haven't you? What are you and Mickey doing?"

"The stabbings on the Larkmead; the latest victim was a fifty-four-year-old IC1 female, but it was only a flesh wound. She's in with Mickey and Rob making a statement and checking WADS at the moment." Hannah told her, taking a seat on the edge of the table beside her friend.

"Why aren't you in there?"

"It wouldn't exactly be appropriate."

The blonde frowned again. "Why?"

"The victim's Sharon… my mother."

"What?!" Stevie's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open at the casual way her friend had imparted that information. "Is she alright? Are you alright?"

Hannah nodded. "Yeah, we're both fine. I'm waiting until she's done with the formalities and then I'm going to talk to her… unless there's anything new on the Travel Agent's case."

"You know you're not allowed near that. The DI will kill me if he finds out I've told you about the sighting."

"OK, OK… but… has Neil mentioned anything to you about an argument between Jo and Chesca?" Hannah asked slowly, her eyes boring into Stevie's as she tried to see whether the woman was hiding anything from her.

"How do you know about that?" DS Moss demanded.

"Neil told me."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I want to know what the argument was about. It might be the reason that Chesca died and Jo's been abducted."

There was a long pause. Stevie pushed herself away from the table and moved to stand against the opposite wall, considering her answer for a moment. Then she seemed to come to a decision, nodding and moving towards the door. She paused and looked at her friend. "We discovered that the manager, Mr Carleton, is quite a nervous person and installed CCTV equipment in his office, which we didn't know before. Apparently that's where Jo and Chesca were when they were having their argument so we sent Uniform down to bring the tapes in. I'm going to need to watch them… if you fancy giving me a hand?"

"Really?" Hannah frowned, as though thinking her colleague was messing around.

"As long as you don't mention this to Neil and you promise to leave following any leads up to us." Stevie said.

"Yeah, yeah… course." She agreed at once, following the blonde out of the room.

Pausing at the SRO desk, Hannah asked Beth to get someone to take Sharon to the canteen if she finished making her statement before she finished watching the tapes with Stevie. Then the two detectives headed up to CID to watch the CCTV footage from the Henderson and Tweed's manager's office. Hannah moved her chair behind Stevie's desk and the two women stared at the screen carefully as the blonde fast-forwarded through the images until Jo and Chesca appeared.

"What are they doing?" Hannah muttered, watching them move around the office. "Is there sound?"

"There should be…" Her friend muttered, fiddling with the controls.

For a couple more minutes the two officers on screen continued to search for something in the room and then, suddenly, both Hannah and Stevie jumped as Chesca's voice boomed out of the speakers. Hastily the blonde decreased the volume and they listened carefully to the conversation, hoping to pick up any clue that might be on the video.

"_Anything?"_

"_Nah, nothing in the desk." Jo muttered, sitting in the chair behind the desk and swivelling slowly. "What about in the bookshelf?"_

"_Nope."_

"_Did Mandy say anything more about Colin Milbank?"_

"_Apart from that we should stick to what we're paid to do and leave her to deal with the Milbank account? No." The young woman said with a shrug, perching on the desk. "I was speaking to Damien earlier and he mentioned that when Mandy was off a couple of weeks ago he had to deal with the Milbank account and it's a big one; flights every couple of weeks."_

"_Did he mention anything about Milbank himself?"_

"_Nothing… he said he's got an Irish accent, though."_

"_Irish?"_

_Chesca nodded. "Listen… d'you fancy going to the pub after work? Maybe we could grab something to eat, too?"_

Listening to the conversation, Hannah scowled at the screen. Beside her, Stevie looked sideways wearily, preparing herself for the red-head to lose her temper. Instead, she simply continued to glare at the computer and balled her hands into fists in her lap.

"_I can't, Chesca, sorry." Jo told the young woman firmly. She returned to searching through the computer files for anything useful. _

"_Why? Hannah wouldn't like it?" The PC almost sneered._

"Bitch…" The red-haired detective muttered at the screen.

"_I'm taking Jen for a driving lesson." Jo informed her, not looking away from the computer. "And I promised to help Molly with her history project on the Egyptians."_

"_Sounds boring…"_

Jo glanced up at that and Hannah could see her eyes narrowing. The red-head couldn't help a smile twisting the corners of her lips at her girlfriend's reply.

"_Maybe to some people, but this is my life and I wouldn't change it for anything. I've got a family, Chesca; I've got a partner and kids and responsibilities."_

_The young woman shook her head. "Don't you ever want to just forget about all that and have fun?"_

"_Who says I don't have fun?"_

"_But… going home to DS McKay… every night?" Chesca laughed, perching on the desk in front of the older woman. "She's so self-absorbed."_

_Before Jo could move, let alone answer, Chesca leant forwards and placed her hands on her face. She pressed her lips to Jo's running her hands down to settle on either side of her neck. After a split second, Jo pushed her away, looking furious._

"_What the hell are you doing?!" _

"_I know you want this. I can see it every time you look at me."_

"_I love Hannah, PC Monroe." Jo told her forcefully, standing up and moving around the desk, folding her arms. "And I'd like you to remember that, whatever you think of her or me, we're still your superior officers and you will respect that."_

"_Yes, Sarge." _

As Jo stalked out of the office, Stevie paused the video and turned to look at her carefully. Both women jumped as a face loomed between theirs and the quietly threatening voice of the DI met their ears. "My office… now."


	22. Chapter 22

Hannah took full responsibility for being caught watching the CCTV footage with her friend. Neil was absolutely furious that she had left her own case and expressly gone against his orders to get involved in the Travel Agent's case. His tirade continued until they heard a knock on the door and the Superintendent invited himself inside.

"Sir?" Neil questioned, his face still red with anger.

"I just thought I should clarify a few things." Jack said. "I asked DS Moss to get DS McKay to watch the CCTV from Henderson and Tweed's with her. I thought that, seeing as Hannah knows Jo the best, she might be able to spot something we'd miss."

Neil frowned. "Well why didn't you tell me that, Stevie?"

"I told her not to mention it to anyone until I'd had the chance to tell you." The Superintendent told him quickly, shrugging and smiling.

"Well… go and get on with whatever it is you're supposed to be doing. That means the Larkmead stabbings, DS McKay." The DI ordered.

As the detectives nodded and turned to leave the office, Jack cleared his throat. "Hannah, I believe there's someone waiting for you downstairs."

"Oh!" Hannah suddenly remembered her mother and nodded. "Yes, Sir. Thank you."

They made their way out of the DI's office and through CID. Stevie hesitated as Hannah turned to head towards the canteen. Her friend stopped and looked at her curiously, wondering what she was waiting for.

"I was going to get a coffee… but I don't want to seem like I'm being nosy." The blonde admitted.

Hannah laughed. "You are nosy, babe. It's fine, though. In fact I might actually be grateful that you're there if it gets too much. I feel like… I feel like today I can only get good news!"

Following the red-head through the corridors of the station Stevie wasn't sure whether she was glad her friend was feeling so positive, or slightly concerned about it. She knew that they were a long way from finding Jo safe and sound and she didn't want Hannah to pull herself out of her negativity only to be crushed again if they discovered the worst.

She smiled at the taller woman as Hannah held open the door for her, before looking around the canteen curiously. She spotted a blonde woman at one of the tables, her hands gripping the coffee cup in front of her tightly. Hannah's mother wasn't what she'd expected at all. From what she knew about Sharon and her years of drug abuse, Stevie had expected to see someone resembling the numerous junkies they dealt with; someone who didn't take care of themselves of their appearance. But the woman sitting a little way away looked nothing like that. Sharon wouldn't have looked out of place amongst the clients of the high-end Travel Agent's that was currently the focus of their investigation.

Sharon smiled brightly as she spotted her daughter entering the room and stood, walking towards them. Now she was able to take in the woman's outfit, Stevie's confusion was heightened. In her smart, tailored skirt suit and shiny stiletto heels, the woman was completely different from her daughter, who was dressed in black skinny jeans, a hot pink vest and a white cardigan with a pair of tatty Converses on her feet. But putting aside their obviously very different styles, looking at them it was obvious to Stevie that they were mother and daughter.

"Hannah, can I get you a coffee?" She asked, her voice betraying her Scottish heritage.

"Umm… yeah, thanks. Stevie?"

"Oh, no." The blonde DS said quickly, smiling. "I'll get my own."

"Don't be silly." Her friend rolled her eyes.

The older woman smiled again. "Of course you won't. I'm Sharon." She held out her hand and shook Stevie's hand politely.

"Stevie… DS Moss."

"It's nice to meet you. I'll just go and…"

As Sharon walked towards the counter to buy the drinks, Hannah and Stevie moved towards the table she had been sitting at and settled themselves on either side. They chatted casually while they waited, neither bringing up the fact that they were waiting for Hannah's mother to return.

When she set the two mugs on the table in front of the younger women, she smiled and looked between them, evidently wondering what her daughter had told her friend about their relationship. After a couple of moments of small talk, Stevie realised that with her sitting there the women weren't going to have a chance to talk properly and excused herself.

"I'm going to go and see what's happening." She told Hannah with a reassuring smile. "I'll come and tell you when there are developments."

"Thanks, but… won't you get into trouble?"

"I guess the Super wants you kept informed seeing as he just lied to the Guv to save your ass." When Hannah looked confused, Stevie grinned. "He never told me to tell you to come and watch the footage."

Hannah shook her head as the blonde said goodbye to her mother and walked away quickly. Then she turned and smiled weakly at the older woman. "So…"

"Look, Hannah, I understand you're going through a difficult time." Sharon said quickly. "DC Webb, is it, your colleague? He told me that they're still looking for your girlfriend."

She sighed deeply. "Yeah… but there was a lead this morning and I have a really positive feeling about it." The red-head smiled. "Jo's amazing… she's so good for me. I know it was probably a bit of a shock…"

"Well, yeah, I'm not going to deny that." Sharon agreed with a nod, wrapping her hands around the coffee mug. "But if she makes you happy and she looks after you then that's all that matters."

There was a long pause. Then Hannah bit her lip and decided to say what was on her mind. "The possibility of losing Jo made me realise that life's too short to worry about the past. It might take a while, but I want to try and get some kind of relationship with you. The kids have already got grandparents; Jo's Mum and Dad are brilliant and they'd do anything for them. But if you've changed, really changed, then I'd like them to get to know you too."

"I have, Hannah." Sharon assured her seriously. "When your father and I split up sixteen years ago I went back to Glasgow and saw my parents for the first time in years–"

"I've seen the misper report." Her daughter said quickly. "You ran away in 1974?"

Sharon nodded. "I did. My parents were strict and I was wild. Your grandfather was a Presbyterian minister and he had very firm opinions on how to bring up children, so I rebelled. But when I went back they sent me to a counsellor. After I finally kicked the drugs I started seeing Ian and like your girlfriend is for you, he was good for me. Our son, Liam, was born in 1999." She tilted her head and regarded her daughter carefully, trying to work out what was going on in Hannah's head. "You're wondering why I didn't come looking for you sooner?" She guessed correctly. When the detective nodded, the blonde sighed. "You're a difficult woman to track down. I remembered that you worked at Barton Street Police Station, so I went there about… ten years ago? They told me that you'd left, but didn't tell me where you'd gone."

"I went to Manchester and then Cardiff." Hannah informed her, not elaborating further.

"It was sheer luck that I discovered where you were a couple of weeks ago. Ian was watching the news and I happened to glance up and I saw you giving a press conference about a murder enquiry."

Hannah nodded slowly. "The Andrew Mullins case?"

"Something like that." Her mother agreed. "I recognised you straight away. You said that if anyone had any information they should contact Sun Hill CID and I realised that must be where you were. Ian persuaded me to come straight down and find you."

"I'm glad you did." The detective admitted quietly. She glanced up and saw Stevie leaning round the door watching her. Meeting her eyes, the blonde motioned for her to go over and Hannah stood up. "Look… I've got to go. I don't know what's going to happen later but… I'll ring you, OK? If I don't get bad news then maybe you can come and meet the kids… I'm not promising anything. It depends how today ends up."

"No, obviously, I understand." Sharon agreed, her face betraying her feelings. She smiled and stood as her daughter moved away.

"Stevie? What is it?" Hannah demanded, her stress levels rising instantly.

"The Guv has bestowed the honour of being involved in the case on you." The blonde told her with a grin. She laughed at the expression of disbelief on the red-haired Detective Sergeant's face. "Neil wants us to head over to Heathrow and keep an eye on the car park. Milbank's flight gets into terminal 5 at six; he's coming via Madrid according to the flight information."

"It's only… two."

Nodding, Stevie pushed open the doors to CID and moved to her desk, gathering her things while Hannah did the same. "It'll take us ages to get there and we need to be in position early to make sure we don't miss them."


	23. Chapter 23

"Are you sure it's safe to go ahead?" A male voice was asking when Jo came round. She looked around, realising that she was in a different room yet again. Her captors seemed to move her round almost continuously, which couldn't be making tracing her easy for her colleagues. "I mean, they're gonna be watching out for us, ain't they?"

"That's why we should get rid of her and do a runner." A second, Irish male voice suggested.

To Jo's immense relief a third, more authoritative voice shot that idea down at once. "Don't be stupid; she's far more use to us alive, Dan." There was a pause. "It's the 29th... Paul's flight gets in at six, so we've got about eight hours to lay low. As soon as your brother's off that plane we're out of here."

"But how are we gonna get away?" The first voice asked again. "They're gonna know about Paul by now."

By now Jo had identified the three men who'd been holding her for almost a week. The man who'd just spoken was Tommy Wilshaw. He was totally out of his depth, but it was partly down to him that she was still alive. The man with the Irish accent was Dan, brother of Paul who was otherwise known as Colin Milbank. He was as ruthless as Tommy was nervous and it was down to him that Chesca was dead. The third man, John, was the true brains behind the whole operation.

Jo closed her eyes and shifted as best she could into a more comfortable position; difficult with your arms and legs bound tightly with rope and a gag in your mouth. The woman's mind drifted back to the events that had happened several days ago and led up to this moment.

For some reason the Travel Agents had been running on minimal staff on Wednesday. Mr Carleton was away and Mandy Reynolds had been left in charge. Only Jo, Chesca, Mandy and the slightly over-enthusiastic Damien had been in the shop that morning. With Damien sent out for sandwiches and Mandy distracted by a phone call about the mysterious Milbank account, the two police officers had taken the rare opportunity to search the manager's office for any clues.

When Chesca had invited her out for a drink, Jo's mind had snapped back to what her girlfriend had warned her about the young PC and finally she had realised that Hannah had been right about Chesca. The argument that followed had caused Jo to briefly break cover in her shock at being kissed by the younger woman. In the end that moment had turned out to be dangerous; fatal, in fact.

Less than ten minutes after the two women left the manager's office, four masked men had burst into Henderson and Tweed's and bundled them into the back of a waiting van. There had been a short, bumpy journey during which both officers had been flung around like rag dolls, before the vehicle had come to an abrupt halt and the doors had opened. Jo and Chesca had been dragged out and pushed into a building of some sort. The brunette Sergeant wasn't entirely sure what had happened, but they had been tied up and gagged and then, seemingly without warning, Chesca had been shot.

Dan, the Irish man, had been waving the gun around dangerously and with the sound of the gunshot still ringing in her ears Jo had been convinced that she had seconds left to live. To her immense relief Tommy Wilshaw had jumped forwards and grabbed the gun out of his accomplice's hands, shouting about them being in trouble when John realised what he'd done. Sure enough at the arrival of the man Jo now recognised as John, a furious argument had broken out and the newcomer had laid into Dan violently.

Several days had passed since then; Jo hadn't been sure how many exactly, but hearing that it was the 29th she was able to calculate that this was the sixth day she had been held by the men. She also realised with a jolt that it was Hannah's birthday. The woman had largely been trying to block out thoughts of what was going on at home and how her disappearance would be affecting her family, but remembering that it was her girlfriend's birthday was almost too much for her. She knew Hannah would be going out of her mind and probably driving everyone around her mad in the process; especially if they had discovered Chesca's body. Jo could almost see her girlfriend raising hell at the station in her attempts to find her.

Having realised several days ago that she had no hope of undoing the ropes around her wrists, Jo resigned herself to listening to the conversation taking place on the other side of the door and trying to formulate a plan. Shuffling awkwardly, she moved closer to the muffled voices so that she could hear better.

"Paul's flight lands at Heathrow at six. We'll go early; if we leave here at four that gives us two hours to get there. If we split up the cops won't know who to follow."

"What about her?" Dan demanded and Jo guessed he meant her.

"I'll keep her with me." John told them firmly. "If the cops do track us down then we'll have something to bargain with. They're less likely to be trigger happy if we've got one of their own."

Their voices receded and after a moment Jo heard a door bang. She sighed deeply. On one hand she highly doubted that the men would make it in and out of Heathrow without being spotted by her colleagues; she knew that Chesca had passed on details of Colin Milbank's flights in and out of Colombia and they would be all over the airport. On the other hand, the woman also highly doubted that her captors would hesitate to use her as a bargaining tool and, if necessary, to send a message to the police that they weren't messing around.

With no sense of time in the tiny room where the light levels didn't seem to change at all, Jo found herself drifting off to sleep without knowing how long it had been for. She came round to the sound of the door being unbolted from the outside and someone entering the room. Opening her eyes and dragging herself upright into a seated position, the woman glared at the two men who moved to her sides. They didn't say anything and barely looked at her as they half carried, half dragged her out of the room. Jo winced as the bright light outside hurt her eyes after the near darkness of her prison.

"Put her in the van." John ordered, motioning towards the white transit van parked a little way off. Jo saw two other cars parked close together and realised that each of the men must be driving one and heading to the airport separately. "I'll drive it."

As she was unceremoniously flung in the back and the doors were slammed shut, Jo looked around quickly for anything useful. She shuffled backwards towards a tool bag in the corner and felt carefully for something to help her cut through the ropes around her wrists. Her hand closed around something with a sharp edge and she winced as it sliced through her palm. Turning it awkwardly, Jo started trying to saw through the rope, swearing in frustration as she dropped the tool. This continued for a long time. Unable to grip it properly, the woman felt as though she was spending more time hunting on the floor for the object and trying to manoeuvre it into a position where it was doing any good, than actually making progress getting through the ties.

Just as her desperation was reaching a point where she was doing more damage to herself than the ropes, the brunette felt the bindings giving way slightly and threw herself into the task with more vigour. Jo almost cried with relief as, with a final snap, the ropes gave way and her wrists sprang apart. She rubbed them roughly, bringing the blood rushing painfully back to her hands.

Then she looked around, wondering what she was supposed to do next.


	24. Chapter 24

"Stevie, it's been ages." Hannah groaned, leaning her head against the head rest on the passenger's side of the pool car. They had been sitting in the terminal 5 car park in Heathrow airport since ten to four. The traffic had been terrible and there had been a mix up with the airport security who had since come over to talk to them twice about being parked there.

"It's almost six." The blonde tried to pacify her friend, glancing at the clock and realising just how near six o'clock it actually was. She raised her radio to her lips and pressed the button. "Guv? Any sight in there?"

"Not yet." Neil's voice crackled through the device in her hand. "We've alerted airport security and as soon as he comes through passport control they're going to pull him in. Anything with you?"

"Nothing."

"Hang on…" Hannah sat up straight and pointed out of the window to the car park entrance where a metallic green car had just driven in.

Stevie pressed the button her radio once more. "Guv, metallic green Renault Megane Coupe has just entered the car park. The licence plate number is Lima Romeo 12 Hotel Hotel Juliet."

"That's him, DS Moss." Neil confirmed. "Have you got visual on Target 2?"

"Umm… Han?" Leaning slightly to one side to get a better view of the car's driver, Hannah nodded. "Yes, Guv."

"OK… go and get him."

"Yes, Guv."

As Stevie moved to open her door, her colleague stopped her. "Wait a sec… that's Wilshaw, but if they've got inside covered then we might as well hang on a minute."

"Why? You heard the DI, he wants us to get him. What's the point in waiting around?"

"I know, I can't see Wilshaw coming up with this on his own; he didn't seem clever enough. Besides, I think that Mandy Reynolds was far too quick to give us his name."

Stevie frowned and then nodded slowly. "So you reckon Wilshaw's a decoy?"

"Could be... or he might be being set up to take the fall." The red-head agreed. "But like I said, we don't need to rush in unless he looks like he's about to leave."

Nodding, the blonde leant back in her seat, radioing in Hannah's thoughts to the DI and telling him that they were going to monitor the car for a while unless Wilshaw made any signs of leaving. Neil agreed, as long as they let him know if there were any changes. For a couple of moments the target sat in his car. Then the door opened and he got out, looking around before making his way over to a white transit van parked in the row in front of the pool car. Hannah and Stevie instinctively partially covered their faces; the red-head with her hair and the blonde with a newspaper.

They watched as Wilshaw opened the driver's door of the van and spoke to someone for a moment. Surreptitiously, Stevie raised the camera they'd brought with them and took a few shots of him speaking to whoever was driving the Transit. The two women hid their faces again as the man walked over to a black Ford a row away from his own car and bent down to speak to the driver. Again the blonde Detective Sergeant raised the camera and photographed the scene. As Wilshaw made his way back to his Renault, Stevie raised her radio behind the newspaper.

"Guv; Wilshaw's just spoken to the driver of a white transit – plate number Hotel November 60 Foxtrot Whiskey Tango –and a black Ford Mondeo – partial plate number Victor Kilo 95 Delta... the rest is obscured." She informed him. "I think he's leaving the car park now; what d'you want us to do?"

"Stay where you are and keep an eye on the other two. I'll get Mickey and Rob to pick Wilshaw up when he leaves." Neil told them.

They watched as the car slowly drove past, heading for the exit. When it was gone, they settled back down to keep up surveillance on the van and the Ford. Neil radioed through to let them know that Mickey and Rob had arrested Tommy Wilshaw and were taking him into the station.

Nothing else happened for a while. Hannah started getting impatient, glancing between the time on her mobile and the clock on the dashboard as if she thought they'd tell her different things. As quarter past six come and went, she exhaled sharply and moved to open her door.

"What are you doing?" Stevie hissed, grabbing hold of her wrist.

"This is boring."

"Stakeouts are." The blonde reminded her. "But where are you going?"

The red-head nodded towards the van. "They're gonna realise something's up soon enough. When the target doesn't show, they're gonna work out they've been rumbled. I'm going to take a look…"

"Hannah!" Stevie tightened her grip on her colleague's wrist. "You can't just wander over there and start checking out his van!"

Screwing up her face as she considered what Stevie had said, Hannah nodded slowly. "No, you're right. So you need to go and distract him while I try and take a look in the back."

"No!"

"Stevie! Don't you think it's odd that they've brought a Transit van to pick Milbank, or whoever he really is, up from the airport? I mean, they've obviously got cars available, so why bring a van?"

"I don't know!" The woman sighed. She looked sideways and saw that Hannah was smiling at her, knowing that the blonde was fighting against the urge to go and investigate. Stevie knew that they shouldn't, but her friend was right about the van. "Fine! Just be quick!"

The red-head nodded and both women climbed out of the car. Stevie smiled determinedly and made her way to the driver's door. She knocked and smiled, pretending to be asking the driver for change for the machine. Hearing the blonde giggling flirtatiously, Hannah shook her head and crept towards the back of the van, keeping her eyes on the back Ford in case the driver spotted her. Luckily the back was hidden from its sight.

When there was no sign of anyone wondering what she was up to, Hannah tried the handle and was unsurprised to find that it was locked. Chewing her lip, the detective frowned and thought about how to get into the van. She doubted that there was a crowbar in the boot of the pool car and, even if there was, she knew the DI wouldn't take very kindly to her using it to break into the van; especially if she didn't find anything.

Frowning, she went back to the pool car and leant back in the seat, sulking. Folding her arms across her chest, she watched as Stevie glanced in her direction and smiled at the person in the van before heading towards her. The blonde shut the door, before twisting to face her expectantly.

"Well?"

"It was locked."

"Surprise, surprise!" Stevie muttered. "I was expecting you to break in or something."

"I didn't think we had a crowbar." The red-head replied with a shrug. "I need you to get the keys."

Spluttering with laughter, Stevie shook her head. "How do you expect me to do that?"

"Use your imagination!"

"You're incorrigible!"

Hannah grinned. "Thank you."

Pouting and shaking her head, her friend got out of the car and paused for a moment. Then she opened the bonnet and there was a loud clang. Going to see what Stevie was doing, Hannah raised an eyebrow and folded her arms over her chest.

"The DI's going to kill you for that." She said with a smirk.

"Yeah, well, this better be worth it. If you don't find anything useful in that van the DI will kill us both." Stevie told her seriously, wiping her hands on her jeans. "You're gonna have to be quiet, because it isn't that far away. I'll try and keep him distracted for as long as I can, but you might have to hide in the back if I can't keep him long enough."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Hannah agreed, moving away from the car and going to lean against the far side of the van out of view of the car.

She waited as Stevie disappeared from sight. A couple of moments later she heard the cab door slamming and the blonde Detective Sergeant reappeared walking beside a tall, well-built man. He had his hands jammed in his pockets, but removed them as they reached the pool car and he leant against the frame, staring at the engine. Carefully, Stevie slid her hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out his keys. Turning, she threw them across the car park towards her friend, who caught them deftly, grinned and winked.

Keeping her eyes trained on the figures leaning over the car, she slid the key into the lock and turned it carefully. Giving it a tug, Hannah pulled the door open and blinked into the darkness. She was unable to stop herself screaming as someone barrelled towards her, knocking her backwards onto the ground and landed heavily on top of her.

"What the fuck?!" She shouted, blinking up at the face inches above hers. "Jo?"

* * *

_**A/N: So this is the penultimate chapter! Just one more chapter of Jo and Hannah (aka Jonnah - cheers **_**Bettilicious**_** for the name :P) to go!**_

_**Thank you all so, SO much for your amazing reviews and just for reading this! It means a lot! :)**_

_**x**_


	25. Chapter 25

"Happy birthday, babe." Jo said softly. When Hannah just blinked, tears appearing in her eyes, she smiled and kissed her.

There was no time for the two women to say anything else because Stevie called for help restraining the man who had been looking at the engine, but was now attempting to overpower her. Hannah scrambled to her feet and frowned at her girlfriend, detective-mode kicking in with a vengeance as she motioned for Jo to stay where she was while she leapt forward to assist the blonde. They wrestled him to the ground and managed to get the handcuffs on, before Stevie forced him into the back of the car.

When the blonde turned away to radio the DI, Hannah rushed back towards Jo. She placed her hands on either side of her girlfriend's face and kissed her heatedly, moving her arms to wrap around Jo and hold her close. Now that she had her back, Hannah didn't want to let the older woman go, in case she disappeared again.

After a couple of moments she gently pulled away and checked her for obvious signs of injury. Apart from a couple of bruises and some cuts, mainly on her arms and wrists – which Jo quickly explained away by telling her how she'd removed the ropes – the brunette seemed remarkably fit and healthy. Jo was eager to inform her than she hadn't been badly treated during her abduction, just tied up and left on her own for the majority of the time. Hannah was relieved to hear that and dying to tell her what the Clinic had told her, but she guessed that it wasn't really the right moment.

"I was going out of my head." She murmured, pulling Jo into another hug. "After we found Chesca's body and then that other one… I think I actually scared Sam. After I told her I didn't think I'd be able to survive without you she wouldn't leave me on my own at all."

"What did you… you didn't threaten to… Han!" Jo's eyes widened in shock as she thought about what her girlfriend was suggesting. "You wouldn't have actually… Hannah…"

The red-head shook her head and smiled. "It doesn't matter now. You're safe and that's all that matters. Oh! I need to ring your parents and Ellie and–"

"Slow down!" Jo laughed softly, putting her hands on the younger woman's face. "I think maybe we should give concentrate on things here first."

"Oh…" Looking over her shoulder, Hannah nodded. "Maybe that's a good idea."

The two women made their way over to where Stevie was watching Leon and Roger handcuffing the driver of the black Ford. After the blonde gave her friend a hug and repeated the questions Hannah had not long asked her, she was satisfied that Jo had come out of the situation relatively unscathed. They stood together, Jo and Hannah hand-in-hand, watching everyone else going about their tasks.

"Sarge!" Mel shouted, rushing towards the brunette and stopping just in front of her. "You alright?"

"Fine, Mel, thank you." Jo told her with a warm smile.

"Yeah course she is." Hannah almost whinged while shaking her head at her girlfriend, although she squeezed her hand tightly, showing Jo that she didn't mean what she was saying. "It's me that's gonna end up covered in bruises the way she launched herself at me out of that van."

"I thought you were gonna attack me!"

The red-head rolled her eyes. "Course I was. I often go around attacking people that I'm trying to rescue form the back of Transit vans."

"Well, you never know; birthdays do strange things to people!"

Stevie's mouth dropped open. "It's your birthday, Han?! Why didn't you say anything?"

"I had slightly more important things on my mind, love." She reminded her friend with a wry smile.

x-x

The next couple of hours passed in a blur of debriefings and reports and interviews. Hannah, seeing as she had been told to stay away from the case and was technically still dealing with the Larkmead stabbings, was spared most of the hard work. Jo was whisked off to St Hugh's for medical checks, although her girlfriend managed to grab her hand and drag her away from Smithy for a couple of moments before she went.

"Before you go and get checked out I need to tell you something. I had a call from the Olsen Clinic yesterday." Hannah told her, trying to keep the smile off her face. "I'm going to be doing the drinking for both of us tonight, baby."

"You mean…" Jo trailed off, her eyes searching her girlfriend's face for any hint that she was messing around. "I'm…"

Placing her hand over Jo's on the brunette's stomach, Hannah nodded. "Fourteen weeks."

"Wow… this is a day and a half…"

"It's about to get stranger." The younger woman said. "I've invited my mother round later."

Jo frowned. "Really?"

"Yeah."

With a shrug, Jo pulled Hannah towards her and held her tightly. The red-head clung on, nestling her face into her girlfriend's neck and breathing in deeply. The scent of the brunette's perfume and something that she could only describe as 'just Jo' reassured her that she wasn't dreaming and her girlfriend was really there with her.

"Are you crying?" Jo asked, trying to twist her head to look at Hannah.

"No." She snuffled, keeping her face firmly hidden.

Jo laughed and forced her to look round so that she could kiss her softly. Then she headed off to the hospital with Inspector Smith. Hannah sighed and headed up to CID, where she spent the next hour or so on the phone. She phoned home first, guessing that Jo's parents would be there as well. With the children all off school because of it being half term, Hannah made her oldest daughter put the phone on speaker so that she could tell them all at once. The resulting scream made most of her colleagues look up from what they were doing as Hannah winced and held the receiver away from her ear. When she had finally reassured them that she and Jo would be back as soon as possible, Hannah phoned Sam, letting her know that Jo was safe and sound and didn't seem to be suffering any ill effects from her six days abduction too. Then the detective phoned her mother and told her the news. She hesitated for a moment, before taking a deep breath and inviting Sharon to the gathering that they were having at the house to celebrate her birthday and Jo's homecoming.

The reports on Hannah's desk were still completely untouched when the double doors opened and her girlfriend appeared in CID. At once the red-head was out of her seat and walking towards her. The door to the DI's office opened as she passed and Neil poked his head through, clearing his throat.

"Hannah?"

"Yes, Guv." She stopped reluctantly, turning to look at her superior officer.

"Finish early today; get home and spend time with Jo and your family." She beamed at him and doubled back to her desk to collect her things, not needing to be told to leave twice. As she reached the door, linking her fingers with Jo's, Neil spoke again. "Oh, and Hannah? Happy birthday."

She laughed. "Thanks, Guv."

As they reached the house, Hannah held back, pretending that she needed to make a phone call so that Jo could enter the house on her own. The brunette shook her head, knowing exactly why Hannah was hesitating. Pulling out her keys, she unlocked the door and walked into the house, making her way straight into the living room.

When the red-head walked into the room herself, she laughed softly as she watched all the children trying to hug Jo at the same time. The brunette was laughing too, trying to wipe away several sets of tears, talk to her parents and not fall over at the same time.

"Come on, you lot!" Hannah called, perching on the arm of the sofa beside Meg and squeezing her mother-in-law's shoulder. "Let your Mum breathe for a minute."

The talking died down for a split second, before returning to its formal level. Hannah glanced at her girlfriend's parents and laughed. She stood up as the doorbell rang and went to open the door, finding herself being hugged by Sam before she knew what was happening. Ushering the four visitors into the living room, the detective wasn't surprised as the noise levels rose even more.

By the time Jen had put some music on and a party atmosphere had taken over the house, Hannah could barely make out the sound of the doorbell ringing again. Jo stood to answer the door, but her girlfriend shook her head and bent down to kiss her quickly, before heading off to see who was outside.

"Sharon!" She said with a smile as she opened the door and saw the blonde on the doorstep. "Umm… come in."

"Thanks." Her mother said, returning the smile and holding out a bottle of wine.

Taking it out of her hands, the detective waited as she hung up her coat on the hooks beside the door, before leading the way to the living room. She hesitated for a second, before reaching out and squeezing her mother's arm reassuringly. The blonde seemed taken aback by the positive physical contact; the first since her return. But she smiled broadly, realising that they were on the right path to where they wanted to be.

"Everyone?" She called over the noise. "Oi! Jen, turn that off for a second." Smiling as the teenager rolled her eyes but did as she was asked and turned off the music, Hannah pulled the woman beside her into the room. "This is Sharon… my Mum."

The stunned silence that followed her announcement seemed to go on for hours. Seeing that no one else knew what to say, Jo stepped forwards and smiled brightly at the woman. "Hi, I'm Jo."

"Jo, I've heard a lot about you. It's lovely to meet you." Sharon told her, her soft Scottish accent clear in the near-silence. She smiled warmly and chuckled. "Don't worry; I don't expect you to return the compliment."

Slowly the conversation returned and Hannah felt that she could leave her mother's side. She glanced over to see Max and Ellie talking to Sharon and smiled wryly. Hannah really hoped she wasn't going to live to regret letting her mother back into their lives. From the expressions on her brother and daughter's faces, however, she guessed that Sharon was going to have a struggle on her hands.

Feeling hands sliding round her waist, Hannah leant back against Jo, resting her head on her girlfriend's shoulder. "Listen…" The brunette murmured, her breath tickling Hannah's neck. "D'you think we'll be missed if we sneak off for a while?"

"What _are_ you suggesting, Ms Masters?" The red-head asked in a mock-shocked voice.

"Just that I don't think it's too much to ask that I get to spend a little time alone with my girlfriend on her birthday."

Hannah smirked and glanced over her shoulder, before taking Jo's hand and pulling her into the hall. She pressed her girlfriend against the wall, leaning towards her and stopping just before their lips touched. "Oh, I think it's obligatory."

* * *

_**A/N: Aaaaand that's it. Always go with a happy ending ;)**_

_**Thank you so much to all of you who've been reading/reviewing. You're AMAZING!**_

_**x**_


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